“It Is Inevitable to Speak of Jesus”: Homiletic Inspirations from the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Querida Amazonia

Rafał Kowalski

doi:10.18290/rt206712-4

Rafał Kowalski Pontifical Faculty of Theology in Wroclaw, Poland https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1062-1762

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18290/rt206712-4

Keywords: proclaiming the word of God, preaching, evangelization, integral ecology, pastoral ministry

Abstract

The article is an attempt at analysing the homiletic directives of the Apostolic Exhortation Querida Amazonia of Pope Francis. This is warranted insofar as this document is an attempt by the Bishop of Rome to find answers to problems and challenges facing the Church in South America, as it is eminently pastoral in character, and as proclaiming the Word of God is one of the chief pastoral activities. The author analyses the thought of Pope Francis in three areas: terminology, theology and praxeology. Such a perspective enables a holistic presentation of the exhortation, and allows to extract from it key directives for the preachers of the Word of God. A deeper study of Querida Amazonia leads to a surprising observation that the scope of the document is much broader that its title might suggest. In this perspective, the Amazon region becomes a symbol of a world with which Church attempts to share the Gospel, and its inhabitants—a symbol of the modern hearers of the Word of God.

Author Biography

Rafał Kowalski, Pontifical Faculty of Theology in Wroclaw, Poland

Rev. Rafał Kowalski, PhD—presbyter of the Archdiocese of Wrocław, doctor of theology of the Catholic University of Lublin (pastoral theology in the field of homiletics), assistant professor at the Department of Religious Communication at the Institute of Social Sciences of the Pontifical Faculty of Theology in Wroclaw, lecturer in homiletics and communication theory, Director of the Department of Social Communication of the Wroclaw Metropolitan Curia, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Wrocław

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