ENVIROMENTAL IMPACT ON INTEGRAL HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
AMECEA URGES FOR ENVIRONMENTAL CARE
The care for our own common home, our environment is a must. We live in the world created by God and in this world a human being came into being after all the other creatures were created (cf. Gen. 1). A human being in this world needs to relate well and respect the other created beings. They are his ‘elder brothers and sisters’. Is this the case now?
During the 20th plenary Assembly of Association of Member Episcopal Conference in Eastern Africa (AMECEA), over 100 Catholic Bishops, gathered in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania from 9th July to 17th July 2022, have called for all of us to care for environment.
Basing themselves on the second encyclical of Pope Francis ‘Laudato si’ ( on the care for our common home) which the Pope not only critiques consumerism and irresponsible development landing into environmental degradation and global warming but also calls for the world to take swift and unified global actions, the AMECEA Bishops want pragmatic implementation on what was being proposed in Laudato si.
No wonder that the theme for the plenary session has been ‘environmental impact on integral human development’ which clearly indicates the relationship that is supposed to be there between human beings and environment.
In line with the theme for the assembly, Louis Antonio Cardinal Tagle, the Pro-Prefect for the Dicastery for Evangelisation emphasized that growth and development call for fraternal love of all creation. He said that where there is failure in human fraternity creation is almost automatically misused hence there is need for human beings to take care of environment.
All of us should not be idle in our efforts to make our surroundings green. This is why Dei Verbum agrees with the President of the United Republic of Tanzania, Samia Sululu who, after being invited to the plenary assembly, stressed that the fight against climate crisis is not a one man’s struggle but it involves everybody since environmental degradation affects all people.
US Ambassador to Tanzania, Donald John Wright, who was also invited to the assembly, said that care for environment should be taken seriously as a necessity or basic need. He believes that protecting our shared earth is not a choice but a necessity for all our future generation. All of us can create sustainable initiatives, actions and policies that shall eventually improve our way of life.
Fr. Andrew Kaufa, AMECEA Communications Secretary quotes Dr. Paolo Ruffini who stressed during the plenary assembly that Communication has a huge role to play in spreading ecological ethics so that people should relate well with the environment. The more we talk about it in both electronic and print media as well as social media platforms the more people are enlightened about the care for our common home, the environment.
We are no better than the other created beings. In fact we should feel sorry for ourselves as human beings for considering ourselves superiors to the other created beings that were brought into being prior to our own existence. We need to give huge respect to them by being kind enough to them. We are all related. As the other created beings get something from us we also benefit from them, this is a symbiotic relationship.