"Life, Territory, Time and Dialogue": Topsy and Tuptim Discuss Chapter I of the Amazon Working Doc

The Amazon River Basin

Tuptim welcomes Topsy who settles in at the kitchen table with her notebook and highlighted copy of the working document. Tuptim sets a steaming cup of coffee in front of her friend with a little pitcher of cream.

Tuptim: I never understand why you want to ruin a good cup of coffee by putting in cream!

Topsy: (smiling) Hey, I like it that way. Different strokes for different folks. (Takes a sip.) Mmm, this is good.

Tuptim: It's fair trade coffee from the Amazon basin of South America. I thought that would put us in the mood for talking about the synod document. (She sits at the table and flips over a page on her stapled copy of the document.) I got this off the Vatican website. I love having access to all encyclicals, exhortations, etc. (pauses) So... what did you think about chapter 1?

Topsy: My initial impression? Not much! It was hard to read this without rolling my eyes and shaking my head. Like this sentence:

Today the Church, in order to exercise its prophetic role with transparency, has the historic opportunity to differentiate itself clearly from the new colonizing powers by listening to the Amazon peoples.

We're talking here about a Vatican that hides, covers up, politicizes, and manipulates at every opportunity, especially these synods. And they're talking about exercising a "prophetic role with transparency?" What a joke! There's very little transparency or openness coming from the Vatican. And when do they ever "listen" to the orthodox or pro-lifers or those who value the traditional Latin Mass? They suppress orthodox communities while they give positions of prominence to disgusting heretics like Fr. James Martin and Fr. Thomas Rosica! Gosh I was glad to see Rosica, the plagiarizing liar, get the boot. Sometimes you get to see justice done.

Tuptim: (with a sigh) I picked up on that too. It seems to me that the people of the Amazon, and we're talking about fewer than half the population of Mexico City, are being used to further an agenda. The "Amazonian and missionary face" they talk about seems like nothing more than a face mask covering the dissent-ridden German church which played a major part in planning and participating in the prep meetings for the synod. I don't think we can look at the document in isolation from church politics and I don't think for one minute that this is really about concern for the people of the Amazon!

Topsy: I agree. I think they're using the Amazon indigenous people as change agents. I'm sure you read that troubling statement from Bishop Overbeck who said after the synod "nothing will be the same as it was." That's just plain scary.

Read about the Yanomami people and the Catholic mission that hasn't had a single baptism
 in 53 years which is the model for the synod!

Tuptim: Did you notice all the language that's undefined and weasly? What did you think about this sentence?

The current socio-environmental crisis opens new opportunities to present Christ in all his liberating and humanizing power.

Topsy: (shaking her head) Sounds like it was written by a committee of feminist nuns demonstrating outside the School of the Americas.

Tuptim: I tried to count the number of times the document used the word "life" in the first chapter but gave up after the first couple of paragraphs. It uses "life" so many times in so many different ways, it's confusing.  It talks about the life of the Amazon territory, the life of the people, the life of the Church, the life of the planet. Good grief -- enough already!

Topsy: That reminds me of all the dissenters who equate the presence of  Christ in Scripture and in the people of God with his Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist as if it's all the same. What did you think of the statement that the Amazon river is "the artery of the continent and the world?" Kind of creeped me out, especially from a Vatican that says we focus too much on abortion. Babies' real arteries matter less to this papacy than a river.

Tuptim: It's eco-babble! But that's why they chose the Amazon region - the rain forests - because this isn't about the people - or the faith - it's about environmental extremism and promoting the green agenda. There are indigenous people all over the world. Why weren't they included? In fact, this morning's Mass celebrated the feast of St. Augustine Zhao Rong, the first martyred Chinese priest. He ministered to the indigenous people of Yunnan and was martyred there in 1815. Why wasn't this synod about all the indigenous people of the world? Because it's not about the people!

Topsy: (Grimacing and shaking her head.) You pegged it, Tuptim! They couldn't include the Chinese because the pope betrayed the Church in China.  Including them would remind everyone what a Judas he is. Since the Vatican pulled the rug out from the underground church in China and let the Communist government name bishops, the persecution there has escalated and is worse than ever. Let's stop and ask the intercession of St. Augustine Zhao for this synod and for the poor Church in China. (They pray a Hail Mary together.)

Tuptim: (Looking thoughtful) You know, chapter 1 is really not about the faith. It's about eco-worship and the advancement of the climate change myth. Much of the language reeks of pagan pantheism... treating the earth, the people, etc. as if we are all one big pulsating mass of essence. It reminded me of Sartre's novel Nausea.

Topsy: I read that in college, and I confess this document is making me feel a little nauseated. Check out paragraph 17. It's a doozy! (She reads...)

The communities consulted have also emphasized the link between the threat to biological life and to spiritual life, that is, a comprehensive integral threat. The multi-faceted destruction of the Amazon basin produces imbalance: imbalance of local and global territory, imbalance in the seasons, imbalance in the climate. This affects, among other things, the dynamics of fertility and reproduction of fauna and flora, distressing all Amazon communities.

Tuptim: Wow! Unpack that. These people are so hypocritical! The real imbalance in our world is caused by the attacks on human life, not the rain forest. Moral imbalance, i.e., sin, is the cause of all evil. This pope is more concerned about the "destruction of the Amazon basin" than the destruction of little babies in the womb. He throws an occasional bone to the pro-life community while he fills the Vatican Pontifical Academy for Life with abortion and euthanasia activists. As for affecting the "dynamics of fertility and reproduction" shall we talk about the use of contraception and how chemical hormones in the groundwater is producing eggs in male fish in our streams and rivers? Shall we talk about the "imbalance" in India and China where little girls are killed and little boys are allowed to live creating a situation where there aren't enough women to provide marriage partners? Shall we talk about babies bodies clogging up sewage treatment plants and being buried in landfills. This just makes me sick!

Topsy: Me too! The new dynamic is that man was made for the earth and is a parasite upon its surface. The next part makes some valid points, but they're so wrapped up in a distorted philosophy it's hard to sort the nonsense from the truth! (Reading on....)

For example, natural destruction and pollution affect food production, access and quality. So caring responsibly for life and “good living” is tied in with urgently confronting threats, aggressions and indifference in this domain. The care for life is opposed to the throwaway culture, to the culture of exploitation, oppression and lying. At the same time, it means opposing an insatiable vision of unlimited growth, of the idolatry of money,...

Tuptim: (with an ironic laugh) Whoa! Stop there. The "idolatry of money?" Are they serious? Look at the Bishop of Bling who, after being removed from his diocese for spending tens of millions to upgrade his lifestyle was given a post at the Vatican. Look at McCarrick and Bransfield and Wuerl and all the other princes of the Church living in the lap of luxury while the flock can't afford to send their children to Catholic schools. Look at the German Church that excommunicates Catholics if they want to opt out of the church tax collected and distributed by the government. Excuse me while I get a barf bag.

Topsy: Get me one too. And don't forget how government money here in the U.S. is perverting Church teaching on things like contraception, abortion, and illegal immigration and poisoning groups like Catholic Charities and and Catholic Relief Society. Gotta keep those federal funds rolling in, especially now that the faithful are zipping up their wallets! Why don't you read the next part.

Tuptim: (finding the place) Um...Let's see:

...the idolatry of money, of a world disconnected from its roots and environment, of a culture of death. In short, the defence of life implies the defence of the territory and its resources or natural goods; it also implies defending the life and culture of its peoples, strengthening their organisations, the full enforceability of their rights, and the possibility of being heard. In the words of the indigenous people themselves: “We, the indigenous people of Guaviare (Colombia), are part of nature because we are water, air, earth and life of the environment created by God. Therefore, we ask that the mistreatment and extermination of ‘Mother Earth’ cease. The earth has blood and is bleeding, the multinationals have cut the veins of our ‘Mother Earth’. We want our indigenous cry to be heard by the whole world.”[6]

Topsy: (Rolling her eyes) Here we go. "We are the world." (She pulls up the song on her phone and they both listen.)

Tuptim: (Laughing) That song has more solid philosophy than this document.

Topsy: I agree. The document sounds like Tielhard de Chardin's goofy and dangerous teachings. We are absorbed into the Cosmic Christ and spiral upward to the omega point. And I absolutely detest that occult language of us being "water, air, earth and life of the environment?"... sounds like a chant by a bunch of witches dancing naked in the forest around a cauldron calling on the spirits of water, air, earth, and fire.

Tuptim: Hey, maybe the pope will bring his stang to the synod and bless the bishops with it and call on the spirits of the four directions to come and heal the Amazon basin.

Topsy: Could be! Nothing would surprise me with Pope Francis. There is so much paganism in this document. No wonder Cardinal Brandmuller was concerned! Paragraph 18 just doubles down with its talk of generating cries, "both from the people and from the earth." And what do you think "paths of the Spirit" and of "abundance and 'good living'" are? And what exactly is "communion with nature?" I love nature and I've always tried to be a responsible protector of the environment, but all this anthropomorphic language....

Topsy: I know. We get one more ambiguous document that's aiming at something not ambiguous at all -- conforming the Church to the spirit of the world. It's deja vu. This papacy is the spirit of Vatican II on steroids! I don't see any evidence that this document is from the Holy Spirit! (Looks at her watch.) Oops, I have an appointment. Come to my house tomorrow and we'll move on to Chapter 2.

To be continued....