The multiple “cracks in the planet that we inhabit” (LS, 163), from the melting ice caps in the Arctic to the raging wildfires in the Amazon, from extreme weather patterns around the world to unprecedented levels of loss of biodiversity that sustain the very fabric of life, are too evident and detrimental to be ignored any more. The watershed encyclical letter of Pope Francis named ‘Laudato Si’ called the world’s attention to the increasingly precarious state of our common home, which we want to leave to those who come after us, to children who are now growing up. The communities around the world are already the early and disproportionate victims of the current ecological degradation. We cannot remain indifferent any longer to the increasingly desperate “cry of the earth.
This dreadful state of our planet compels us to gravely focus on the issue. Therefore, we have decided to continue with a clear emphasis on “ecological conversion” in “action”. We had embarked on a seven year journey towards integral ecology, from early 2021.
Our Action Plan
- Encourage and promote concerted individual and communitarian action for the care of our common home, the earth
- Fight against Plastic Pollution
- Undertake awareness in the schools under the Corporate Management of Vijayapuram
- Promote Green Protocol in the institutions under the Diocese of Vijayapuram
- Celebrate World Environment Day June 5th
- A panel presentation and group discussion on:
- Greater use of clean renewable energy and reducing fossil fuels in order to achieve carbon neutrality
- Protection and promotion of biodiversity,
- Clean water for all
- Waste Management
- Organic cultivation
- Promote Ecological Spirituality – Open Air Nature Retreat (recover a religious vision of God’s creation, encourage greater contact with the natural world in a spirit of wonder, praise, joy and gratitude, promote creation-centred liturgical celebrations, prayer, etc.