The initiative aims to "convey the diverse institutions in the Amazon region, members of the Church or linked with her, which were coming to Rome," Mauricio Lopez, secretary general of REPAM, told CNA.
REPAM (the Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial Network) is one of 14 groups on the organizing committee of the Casa Comun initiative, which Lopez said is intended as "a common space and a common calendar" for different groups to host their events, with each group maintaining responsibility and autonomy over its own events.
Lopez said each group "prepared [their event] according to what they do with the particular community they work with. So each case is different and they are sharing that diversity and spirituality from their own context."
He noted there are around 390 different indigenous communities in the Amazon region "and spirituality is part of every culture," though he declined to comment on the ways indigenous people are contributing their spirituality to the events.
REPAM, a group backed by the bishops' conferences in Latin America, describes itself as an advocacy organization for the rights and dignity of indigenous people in the Amazon. The network is involved in operations for the synod assembly.
REPAM's president, Cardinal Claudio Hummes, holds the position of relator general of the Amazon synod.
Also involved the Casa Comun events is Adveniat, the German bishops' Latin American relief organization.
Adveniat describes its collaboration with REPAM as a partnership. In 2016, Adveniat provided 3.2 million euros to sponsor projects in the Amazon.
Adveniat and REPAM have also worked together to lobby the German government on issues related to the Amazon.
Another German bishops' aid organization, Misereor, is also part of the "coordinating committee" of Casa Comun, as is Caritas International. The two groups work together under a 2018-2020 "cooperation contract" approved by the German bishops.
In 2018, Misereor gave 52.64 million euros to finance 337 projects in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to its annual report. It also sponsors projects in Africa and Asia.
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Misereor is listed as a joint-host of many of the month's events alongside REPAM and CIDSE, a network of European and North American Catholic social justice organizations with headquarters in Brussels.
The Global Catholic Climate Movement (GCCM) is another organization involved in Casa Comun. The Global Catholic Climate Movement, the Order of Franciscan Friars Minor, and REPAM were the groups that planned a tree-planting ceremony with an indigenous performance that took place with Pope Francis inside the Vatican gardens Oct. 5.
Other events on the Casa Comun calendar are hosted by the Italian FOCSIV, an international Christian volunteer organization and by the International Union of Superiors General (UISG) and Talitha Kum, a network of religious sisters who fight human trafficking.
The Colombian bishops' conference is hosting a photo exhibition and two roundtable-dialogue sessions.
Hannah Brockhaus is Catholic News Agency's senior Rome correspondent. She grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and has a degree in English from Truman State University in Missouri.