VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Efforts to serve, defend and build up the Catholic community in the Amazon region must be centered on the proclamation of the Gospel, Pope Leo XIV said. When the Catholic Church promotes “the right and duty” to care for the natural environment, it is not encouraging people to be “a slave or worshiper of nature,” since creation is a gift meant to lead one to praise God alone, said a message sent to the Amazonian bishops on the pope’s behalf by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state. The pope asked the region’s bishops “to keep in mind three dimensions that are interconnected in the pastoral work of that region: the mission of the church to proclaim the Gospel to all; the just treatment of the peoples who dwell there; and the care of the common home,” said the message, addressed to Peruvian Cardinal Pedro Barreto Jimeno, president of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon. The message was published by the Vatican Aug. 18 as about 90 bishops from the 105 dioceses and other church jurisdictions in the Amazon region were meeting in Bogotá, Colombia, ahead of a planned general assembly of the ecclesial conference — which includes religious and laypeople — in March 2026. Access to the Eucharist, especially in remote villages in the Amazon, was a major topic at the 2019 synod, leading to discussion and debate about the possibility of ordaining married men who are proven leaders of their Christian communities.