Catholic Commission for Social Justice
By Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ & Director, CREDI
Let’s commit to observe the Season of Creation, an annual ecumenical celebration of prayer and action to protect our common home. It runs from Tuesday, September 1 until October 4, the Feast day of St Francis of Assisi. On September 1 we would all have participated in the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, which Pope Francis has established.
By Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ & Director, CREDI
“What kind of world do we want to leave to those who will come after us, to children who are growing up?” —Pope Francis.
In his one-minute video on March 3 when he announced Laudato Si’ Week, Pope Francis repeated the above question which he had asked in his 2015 encyclical, Laudato Si’: On the care of our common home.”
He said: “I renew my urgent call to respond to the ecological crisis. The cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor cannot continue. Let’s take care of creation, a gift of our good Creator God. Let’s celebrate Laudato Si’ Week together.”
On Wednesday, May 15, the world will celebrate the International Day of Families. The 2019 theme is: Families and Climate Action: Focus on SDG13. The observance focuses on families, family policies and major Sustainable Development Goal 13 targets:
“SDG 13 target 13.3:
Improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning
SDG 13 target 13.2:
Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies and planning” (UN).
T&T is caught up in the worldwide change in weather patterns. It is clear that human activities contribute to climate change.
Recently Rev Lennox Toussaint and I were talking about Baron’s 1994 calypso ‘Mother earth crying’. Here are some of the lyrics:
Mother Earth is crying, she say to stop the polluting…oy oy oy
Mother Earth is dying, we got to stop the polluting…oy oy oy