3rd Pan-Amazonian Jesuit Pre-Forum

The Brazilian city of Belém of Pará is hosting this meeting prior to the 10th Pan-Amazon Social Forum to deepen the improvement of education, the relationship with indigenous peoples and the Jesuit mission in the region

The 3rd Pan-Amazonian Jesuit Preforum, a meeting of representatives of the entire Apostolic Body of the Society of Jesus at the service of the Pan-Amazonian region, will take place from 25 to 27 July. Prepared since February by the dynamic team of the Pan-Amazonian Jesuit Service (SJPAM), it will be held in Belém of Pará (Brazil) in the days prior to the celebration of the X FOSPA (Pan-Amazonian Social Forum).

The objective of this meeting is to deepen the discernment of the new working model of SJPAM, based on three fundamental themes:

• Quality popular education and training
• Accompaniment and closeness to the indigenous peoples.
• Territoriality and Pan-Amazonian mission.

Some of the moments in which the members of the pre-forum will address these themes will be broadcast live on CPAL’s YouTube channel.

The Preforum’s dynamic team is made up of six people: two from Brazil, two from Bolivia, one from Peru, one from Guyana and one from Colombia, who in weekly meetings have been preparing the event and animating the SJPAM through four general meetings open to all Pan-Amazonian collaborators. In addition to the presentation of experiences, the three themes to be discussed in Belém of Pará have been addressed.

About 60 Jesuit and lay collaborators working in the apostolic works of the Society of Jesus in Panamazonia will be present at the pre-forum. The Provincials of Venezuela, Brazil and Peru will also be present. However, a massive presence of all the members of the Apostolic Body involved or interested in the Pan-Amazonian mission through virtual media is expected.

The prelude to the Jesuit Preforos was one of the Assemblies of the former Brazil-Amazonia Dependent Region (BAM), now defunct, held in January 2011. This Assembly brought together representatives of all the provinces and works of the Amazon. Subsequently, in November 2014, another meeting was held in Manaus (Brazil), one year after the SJPAM was founded, at which the priority lines of action of the SJPAM were decided. The first pre-forum was held in Tarapoto (Peru) in 2017, and the second was scheduled to take place in 2020 in Mocoa (Colombia), but the COVID-19 crisis forced it to be held in October of that year through virtual means.

In view of the proximity of this meeting, the president of CPAL, Roberto Jaramillo SJ, made a reflection and a concrete invitation:

“One of the UAP invites us to Care for the Common Home; and two of the lines of action of the Common Apostolic Project 2 of the CPAL invite us to build social friendship and to be in solidarity with the apostolic plans of Pan-Amazonia, Cuba and Haiti, being at the service of migrants, native peoples and Afro-Americans. The Pan-Amazonian Jesuit pre-forum is an opportunity for the Apostolic Body to meet to build greater continental solidarity, to make visible and affirm our vocation to serve and care for socio-environmental justice, as a common responsibility to which we must contribute not only with people or resources, but with concern for its habitat and what we can learn from it. May its richness be valued and may we all contribute.”

Roberto Jaramillo, SJ, President of CPAL

This article was originally published on the CPAL website.