Stor, a 10-meter-tall ‘goddess of the sea’ puppet who carries a message of the oceans in crisis, meets Little Amal, a Syrian child refugee puppet, in Glasgow, Scotland, on Nov. 10, 2021, during the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference. (Photo: AFP)
By UCA News reporter
June 7 2022
Humanity cannot be saved if we don’t respond to cries of the earth and the poor, say Indonesian and Korean bishops.
Catholic leaders in Indonesia and South Korea have called on Christians and people of other faiths to bring about an “ecological conversion” to stop pollution, protect the environment and minimize the impacts of the global climate crisis.
Ahead of World Environment Day on June 5, Indonesian Cardinal Ignatius Suharyo, archbishop of Jakarta, issued a pastoral letter stressing the need for environmental protection in line with Pope Francis’ 2015 landmark encyclical Laudato Si’ and the 50th anniversary of the UN Climate Conference in Stockholm that established the environment day.
“The Stockholm conference discussed three pressing issues — global warming and climate change due to the destruction of nature and loss of biodiversity, and pollution, particularly air pollution. These three are still our concerns in everyday life of humanity, but we don’t care much,” Cardinal Suharyo said.
In Laudato Si’, Pope Francis strongly emphasized the same issues to care for our common home — the earth, the prelate noted.
“Pope Francis said: We need a new ecological approach that can change the way we live in the world, our lifestyle, our relationship with natural resources in general and our view of humanity and life,” Cardinal Suharyo said.
“We have heard and discussed a lot about these things, but the question is whether we have really realized how much care is needed to keep the earth alive for us humans, for our brothers and sisters who are weak, poor and suffering, and for generations to come?”
“How can we care for our less fortunate brothers and sisters and humanity in general if we don’t even care about the environment?”
Cardinal Suharyo said we need to take cues from Jesus’ teaching in the Bible — love your neighbor as yourself — to ensure our love and concerns for those vulnerable due to destruction of the environment.
“Reflecting further on the issue won’t suffice. How can we care for our less fortunate brothers and sisters and humanity in general if we don’t even care about the environment? We must remember that many people are hungry because of the destruction of farmlands. Many are thirsty because of the lack of clean water. Many people get sick from the polluted air.”
The prelate said the Covid-19 pandemic put forth how destruction of natural resources has come back to haunt us, and it must be a learning point for humanity to be in solidarity with nature through ecological conversion.
South Korean Bishop Park Hyun-dong, chairman of the Catholic bishops’ commission for ecology and environment, made a call for “ecological repentance” for the destruction of nature and biodiversity.
Bishop Park, a Benedictine abbot, said human beings must reflect on their place in nature first to realize the vital importance of “restoration and preservation” of nature’s order.
“Many people say the pandemic is related to the climate crisis, and similar things will happen again in the future if we don’t learn the lesion,” Bishop Park said, “I’m worried it will happen again.”
The prelate said human beings have pillaged nature for their comfort and convenience.
“We dreamed of a life that is more convenient and more affluent, but we have ended up burdening nature with our desires. Now, we have a cloudy sky covered with thick dust and we experience record levels of abnormality in the climate,” Bishop Park said.
The earth and humanity can be saved only if we respond to “the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor,” the prelate said.
“As disciples of Jesus, we are called to become good human beings by examining our daily life and work, and we must have ecological repentance to move forward to protect the earth.” – UCA News
