Fraternal Meeting of Franciscans at the Amazonian Synod

The brothers and sisters of the Franciscan Family who participated in the Synod for the Amazon region gathered in the Generalate of the Friars Minor in Rome for a time of fraternity. On 24^th October the group went to the Church of Santa Maria Mediatrice where they prayed Vespers together with the fraternity and shared dinner in an atmosphere of brotherhood and joy. There were 30 members of the Franciscan Family present at the Synod, including 3 cardinals, 17 bishops, 4 sisters, 4 friars and 2 sisters of the Secular Franciscan Order. Coming from different countries, they were “synod fathers”, auditors and experts. The Synod, which had as its central theme the defence of the life of peoples, biodiversity and our “common home”, reached an extensive diagnosis and produced a final document with specific proposals for “new paths for the church and for an integral ecology”.