LEO XIV IN PERU/VII – The Pope in the Peruvian Amazon. Missionary Father Luca Zanta: “May the Gospel bear fruit within the culture of Indigenous peoples, not outside it”

by Laura Gómez Ruiz

Pucallpa – “These are mission lands, where the Gospel is still being sown. We want to do this through dialogue with Indigenous peoples, so that the Gospel may bear fruit within their culture, not outside it.” Father Luca Zanta, an Italian Fidei donum priest from the Archdiocese of Milan, describes in these terms the missionary vision of the Apostolic Vicariate of Pucallpa, which welcomes Pope Leo XIV today, Sunday, November 15.
The visit, explains the priest, who is coordinating and overseeing the logistics of the Pope’s journey to the Vicariate, will also provide an opportunity to renew the Church’s commitment to walking alongside the peoples of the Amazon, beginning with an encounter with their lives and traditions.

One of the central moments of the day’s program will be the Pope’s meeting with representatives of Indigenous peoples in Yarinacocha. A traditional communal structure known as a maloca has been built to welcome the Bishop of Rome. As Father Zanta explains, it is a place where communities come together to listen, talk and make decisions. “The Pope will go there to listen to Indigenous peoples,” he says. The choice of this setting reflects the desire to allow the communities themselves to present their reality to the Successor of Peter.

The meeting has been in preparation for several months, in collaboration with Indigenous organizations and the Vicariate’s Indigenous Pastoral Ministry. Two representatives – a woman and a man – will address the Pope on behalf of the Indigenous peoples of Ucayali, giving voice to the concerns and challenges facing their communities in their territories, as well as to their hopes and aspirations.

All 21 Indigenous peoples living in the Ucayali region have been invited, together with delegations from the other seven Apostolic Vicariates of the Peruvian Amazon. Among them are representatives of the Shipibo-Konibo, Asháninka and Kukama peoples. After their speeches, everyone is eager to hear the Pope’s words. “This is a very important moment,” the priest says.
On March 2, the ecclesiastical circumscription celebrated its 70th anniversary. “We are a young Church,” Father Zanta recalls. Seven decades of presence in a territory where mission calls for “dialogue with Indigenous peoples, appreciating and accompanying them” and, above all, for an attitude of listening and understanding, drawing close to their lives and cultures. The challenge, he reiterates, is to ensure that “the Gospel may bear fruit” among them.
At Pucallpa Cathedral, at the request of the Vicariate’s bishop, Salesian Bishop Augusto Martín Quijano Rodríguez, Leo XIV will water a shihuahuaco tree, an emblematic species of the Peruvian Amazon and a symbol of memory, resilience and care for our Common Home. Elders and children will gather around the tree. The former, Father Zanta explains, safeguard the knowledge handed down by their parents and ancestors and pass it on to younger generations. The children, in turn, represent the future of the peoples of the Amazon.
The visit of Leo XIV, the priest adds, is a gift and a historic event for the local Church, but also an opportunity to strengthen the life of Christian communities by encouraging participation in the Eucharist, catechesis, the formation of young people and the pastoral life of the Vicariate’s 35 parishes.

The presence of the Successor of Peter is also an encouragement to renew the missionary commitment of a Church that seeks to grow with an Amazonian heart and face, deepening an identity capable of holding together faith and the land in which it is rooted.
“This event will help bring hope to the Amazon and promote a local Church with an Amazonian heart and face,” Father Zanta concludes.

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