The synod is “not a discussion, not a parliament,” but there is “a spiritual dynamic,” said Giacomo Costa, S.J., the synod’s secretary for information, at a Vatican press briefing on Oct. 16. The biblical image, he said, is “the blind man who throws away his cloak to go to God,” and for the synod it means “to leave behind the safety of your arguments.”

Creating an Amazonian-rite liturgy and new ministries for laypeople, including the ordination of women deacons, are some of the recurring proposals made by small groups at the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon.

“The synod is already a success by the very fact that it is happening,” said the Peruvian Jesuit, one of the president delegates of the Synod for the Amazon.

"We told the Holy Father that we are afraid because we are forgetting our language; it is being extinguished because we are asphyxiated by the models of development that come from outside that do not respect life."

As the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon reaches its halfway point, leaders of indigenous communities are speaking with passion about what is at stake for their communities and their hopes for this synod.

Pope Francis said, “We must come to realize that what we are accumulating and wasting is the bread of the poor.”