We, the International Catholic Movement for Intellectual and  Cultural Affairs  (ICMICA), the International Movement of Catholic Students (IMCS) and the International Young Catholic Students(IYCS) by this joint solidarity statement wish to support the Holy Father, Pope Francis on his unprecedented stand as a global Church on the protection of the Amazonian Region through the Synod on Amazon and the promulgation of the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Querida Amazonia in Rome, at the Cathedral of Saint John Lateran, on 2 February, the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, in the year 2020 for the People of God and all persons of goodwill.

Through the Pan-Amazon Synod, His Holiness invites the international community to take serious measures to save the lungs of the world in the Amazionia, Congo and Borneo. It became clearer to the world power that what happens to the Amazon is not a local issue, but is of global reach because if the amazon suffers, the world suffers. 

As secondary, tertiary students’ and graduates’ Catholic movements, we have made available to our members globally the three conversational documents through which His Holiness invites the whole Church to see, judge and act for our common home and these includes: the Pastoral Conversion of « Evangelii Gaudium » (To see and listen to the territory and it’s peoples), the Ecological Conversion of « Laudato Si » (An Invitation to embrace an integral ecology) and the Ecclesiological Conversion of « Epicopalis Communio« , the Apostolic Constitution of the Synod of Bishops that calls for a church of encounter, listening and dialogue. 

As the movements in the Holy Roman Catholic Church, we shall continue to demonstrate our profound solidarity with His Holiness in his discerning and Christ-like leadership as a shepherd “smelling like the sheep” that he is providing to the Church and world at large and for exhorting the young people “to care lovingly for our roots, since they are “a fixed point from which we can grow and meet new challenges” (Querida Amazonia 33, cf. 34 & 98). In this we, His Holiness exhort us to take our special seats at the decision-making table in the world today by reassuring us that we the young people are the both the future and the present of our local, regional and global Church, the body of Christ, the People of God, with all peoples of others faiths and goodwill. 

Signed:

President: Kelvin Ahern Secretary General: Philip Ledouble

International Catholic Movement for Intellectual and Cultural Affairs Pax Romana (ICMICA Pax Romana)

President: Ravi Tissera Secretary General: Michael Mmadubueze Ecclesiastical Assistant: Fr. Jojo Fung, SJ

International Movement of Catholic Students Pax Romana (IMCS Pax Romana)

Secretary General (Outgoing): Richard Apeh Secretary General (Incoming): Innocent Odongo Project Coordinator: Roy Ibrahim Ecclesiastical Assistant: Fr. Achille De Marie d’Almeida

International Young Catholic Students (IYCS)