AMECEA-TANZANIA IN FULL SWING AS BISHOPS TACKLE CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
Plenary of the 2022 Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa (AMECEA) meeting of Catholic bishops today entered day three with recollection of cardinals, archbishops and bishops at the Julius Nyerere International Convention Centre in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
And in the study session opening remarks AMECEA Chairman Rt. Rev. Charles Sampa Kasonde of Solwezi diocese, Zambia invited all delegates to feel and be at home and contribute for the common good, grateful that delegates had honoured the invitation to the meeting.
“We are here to take stock on how the Church of AMECEA has implemented the massage of the Laudato Si. Together with other people of other faiths and governments this message has raised interest because climate knows no bounds,” observed Rt. Rev. Kasonde adding that the 2022 AMECEA plenary was follow up to the one in 2019 held in Kampala, Uganda where climate change was also discussed.
“We must respect the fundamental justice to the issues of the environment for it touches not only the present but also the future. We must not grow weary for this call; we will meet resistance as people wouldn’t easily change mindset on issues to do with the environment. The Holy Spirit must guide us all to embrace the journey of caring for the environment for the effects of the environment affect everyone,” he said.
Later the AMECEA bishops, through a message delivered by Bishop George Zumaire Lungu of Chipata, Zambia expressed gratitude to Pope Francis for the Laudato Si issued seven years ago on Pentecost Sunday. In the message, the bishops cite what has, so far, been implemented and the challenges faced. They also congratulate the Pope as his pontificate turns nine this year.
The delegates acknowledge that in the absence of love, humans become a threat to fellow humans and creation itself becomes “the weapon of dominance and destruction than communion”.
The Bishops noted that Covid 19 has exposed social, cultural and political boundaries that humans have created because of lack of fraternity and, quoting Pope Francis” reminded the delegates to avoid green talk solution to the issue of the environment.
“The human environment and the natural environment deteriorate together; we cannot adequately combat environmental degradation unless we attend to causes related to human and social degradation. In fact, the deterioration of the environment and of society affects the most vulnerable people on the planet; those directly affected by the problems raised must be at the heart of the meeting,” he said.
Meetings discussing the environment, it is observed, happen every so often, yet solutions set have little or no impact partly because most professionals, opinion makers, communications media and centers of power, are located in affluent urban areas, far removed from the poor, with little direct contact with their problems.
Quoting the Holy Father, Cardinal Tagle said;
“They live and reason from the comfortable position of a high level of development and a quality of life well beyond the reach of the majority of the world’s population.
“Today, however, we have to realize that a true ecological approach always becomes a social approach; it must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor”.
Development partners were expected to later speak to the delegates, followed by a presentation on historical roots of the AMECEA, slide presentation of the newly appointed, elevated, retired and deceased bishops between the period of 2018-2022 and development of the theme which is Environmental Impact on Integral Human Development.
On Tuesday July 12th, president of Tanzania, Mama Samia Suluhu Hassan, will visit the delegates before the plenary at Julius Nyerere International Convention. Malawi and Zambia will lead the liturgy of the day.