Bishops of England and Wales
renew call to care for creation
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| Care for creation |
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference issues a statement calling
for the development of a “Christian spirituality of ecology” which begins in
personal and family life.
By Vatican News
In the opening lines of his encyclical on the environment,
Laudato sì, Pope Francis describes the earth as “burdened and laid waste, among
the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor”.
Urgency
In their statement, the Catholic Bishops of England and
Wales return to that encyclical as they highlight the urgency of the current
environmental crisis. The earth, they write, “cries out to us because
of the harm we have inflicted on her by our own irresponsible use and abuse of
the goods with which God has endowed her.”
The Bishops go on to outline the extent of the ecological
crisis, and to suggest a Catholic response. This includes inviting the Catholic
community in England and Wales to take up the challenge to adopt a new
lifestyle. “We the Bishops of England and Wales commit ourselves and
invite our people to engage in this urgent challenge”, they write, “so that
together we show leadership by our actions”.
Sustainability
Those actions include encouraging individuals, families and
communities, to find more environmentally sustainable solutions. For example,
Catholic churches and schools are gradually moving away from fossil fuels by
switching to renewable gas and electricity. More than 4,500 have already done
so.
The Bishops are also inviting Catholic communities to share
their stories of successful environmental projects. These may be as easy
as keeping a community garden, installing bike racks, going plastic free,
finding innovative ways to reduce waste – or quite simply, planting a tree.
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