Catholic Bishops in Ghana have drawn inspiration from Pope Francis’ letter to all Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church which stresses the need to care for common home (earth) to launch a five-year programme to tackle climate change.
The encyclical letter from the Holy Pope, the Laudato Si’ (or “praise be you” in Latin) has been one of the most widely talked about papal documents in recent memory.
It has received popular commentary as a papal encyclical partly because of its focus on climate change – a hot topic currently.
The papal letter came with a seven-year Laudato sí Action Platform (LSAP) which Pope Francis announced at the end of the Special Anniversary Year (May 2020 – May 2021) to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the Laudato sí Encyclical.
Pope Francis set up the LSAP to remind everyone of their responsibility towards future generations and urged the whole world – especially Catholics – to continue to take up the charge of caring for the earth in the face of the looming environmental and social crises.
Drawing inspiration from this, the Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference (GCBC) on Wednesday, November 24, 2021, also launched a five-year Laudato sí Action Programme scheduled to run from 2022 to 2026.
This latest initiative of the Ghanaian Bishops aims to achieve seven global Laudato sí goals which centre around responding to the cry of the earth, the cry of the poor, ecological economics, adoption of sustainable lifestyles, ecological education, ecological spirituality, as well as community engagement and participatory action.
Speaking at the launch of the programme at the Catholic Secretariat in Accra on Wednesday, Metropolitan Archbishop of Cape Coast and Episcopal Promoter of the GCBC LSAP, Most Rev. Charles Palmer-Buckle, outlined five objectives of the programme.
They are:
- To sustain the annual tree-planting agenda of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference by mobilizing all the Ecclesial Communities at Diocesan and Parish levels as well as the lay societies to take concrete actions.
- To replicate and model in Ghana the 7-year Laudato Si Action Platform launched by Pope Francis to galvanise actions by the Church and all people of goodwill to address the looming environmental and social calamities.
- To promote a culture of pastoral planning by the Local Church in Ghana which is inspired by the spirit of Laudato Si.
- To establish an effective Programme Management Infrastructure within the National Catholic Secretariat (NCS) to facilitate a well-coordinated implementation, monitoring, reporting and evaluation of the GCBC Laudato Si Programme of Action from 2022 to 2026.
- To proactively seek partnerships with the Government of Ghana and other faith groups in Ghana to agree on a framework of working together to address national environmental concerns and other related issues for the transformation of our society and our common home.
“From Glassgow (COP26) it has become clear to us that with the rise in temperature, just 1.5 degrees Celsius will endanger the whole world because we will get to a point where there will be no return because of the melting of the glaciers, because of hurricanes because of flooding, pollution…
“So what the ordinary Ghanaian can do is not to only listen [to the warnings about climate change] but to act. We must begin to look at the world as something given to us…we must not cut down trees indiscriminately, we must not litter our surroundings with plastics, we must not fill the drains with refuse and we must contribute to the lowering of noise pollution,” Most Rev Palmer-Buckle said.
The Apostolic Nuncio to Ghana, Most Rev Henryk Jogodzinski, who officially declared the initiative launched in Ghana said he was hopeful that the programme will create a new culture of spirituality, care and work of the Catholic Church in Ghana.
“I am happy that the Plan truly presents an integrated approach to human development, namely, spiritual, economic, social, psychological etc. This will help the Catholic Church in Ghana to better demonstrate Integral Human Development as defined in Catholic Social Teaching," he said.
Caritas, the Catholic Church’s charity organisation, will be a major source of funding for the five-year climate action plan in Ghana.