Brazil: On the Conference for Climate Change

Photo by Legis Lentes

We ended our Provincial Chapter with the call of JPIC being renewed and strengthened, and we are being asked to stop, examine and explain our personal and communal commitment.

1 – With the collapse of a dam belonging to the Samargo company, property of two multinational companies, the mining activity is a threat to the life of a vast region where the Gerais and Espiritu Santo Mines are located. There have been many deaths, and the whole population of the area is threatened, as are the animals, farms and a whole ecosystem. It is truly a human and ecological disaster.

2 – With the Conference for Climate Change and encouraged by part of the letter of Cardinal Peter K.A. Turkson, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, we are likewise challenged:

“The aim of this letter is to encourage and support, from now till December, the impact that the Encyclical Laudato Si is having in the Church and in the World…”

Pope Francis, in his address to the World Meeting of Popular Movements, affirmed that Justice often requires prudent political action on the part of elected representatives. At the same time, the Holy Father recognises that we cannot leave everything in the hands of the elite political leaders, because so often that is not sufficient.

"…the future of humanity does not lie solely in the hands of great leaders, the great powers and the elites. It is fundamentally in the hands of peoples and in their ability to organize. It is in their hands, which can guide with humility and conviction this process of change”….

On 26th of October a “Call from the Church to every Continent” was presented during a press conference at the Holy See.

On 29th of November almost a million men, women and children (will take part) in the Global March for Climate Change in London, Berlin, Madrid, Amsterdam, Bogotá, Johannesburg, Dhaka, Kampala, Omaha, Rome, São Paulo, Sydney, Seoul, Ottawa, Tokyo and another 300 cities, many in our own country.

It will be a true exercise of “global ecological citizenship”

The 50,000 representatives – 25,000 official delegates and 25,000 participants with a variety of interests – who are going to meet in COP21 are going to hear the message of Laudato Si and the voice of the people of God. The role of the citizens who from all sides will support a responsible and victorious COP21 is to ensure a direct follow through in important negotiations and decisions.

Let us unite ourselves in prayer with the closing words of the Call to the World:

PRAYER FOR THE EARTH

“God of Love, teach us to care for this World as our common home.
Inspire the leaders of our governments who are going to gather in Paris:
  • That they may listen and be attentive to the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor
  • They may be of one mind and heart, giving a courageous response
  • That they search for the common good and protect the beautiful garden that is the Earth you created for us, for all our sisters and brothers, for all the generations yet to come.  Amen”.
 
Heloisa Rodrigues da Cunha rscj     

 


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