Pope Francis: Querida Amazonia, sacraments “should be accessible” even in “remotest and most isolated communities”.

The sacraments “should be accessible, especially for the poor, and must never be refused for financial reasons”. Pope Francis wrote this in his Apostolic Exhortation “Querida Amazonia”, saying that there is no room, “in the presence of the poor and forgotten of the Amazon region, for a discipline that excludes and turns people away, for in that way they end up being discarded by a Church that has become a toll-house”. Hence the need for inculturation, which “should also be increasingly reflected in an incarnate form of ecclesial organization and ministry”. “Efforts need to be made to configure ministry in such a way that it is at the service of a more frequent celebration of the Eucharist, even in the remotest and most isolated communities”, Pope Francis proposed. Indeed, the Pontiff wrote, in order to “heed the lament of the many Amazonian communities deprived of the Sunday Eucharist for long periods of time”, there is a need for “ministers who can understand Amazonian sensibilities and cultures from within”.
Valentina Bombelli