KENYA: Catholic Priests Geared Up to be Agents of Change After Online Engagements on Ecological Conversion
Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
Catholic priests in the Sub-Saharan Africa who benefited from the just concluded online engagements on ecological conversion convened by the Catholic Youth Network for Environmental Sustainability in Africa (CYNESA) are set to be agents of change in taking care of creation in various ways based on the knowledge acquired from the workshop.
“I realized that this group of leaders can do a lot through planting of trees, divesting from fossil fuel and using the pulpit to promote care for Mother Earth,” the Coordinator Promoting Integral Human Development (PIHD) at Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa (AMECEA) Fr. Paul Igweta Mung’athia who participated in the online engagements told AMECEA online in an interview Thursday, June 11.
Fr. Mung’athia who has been conducting seminars and training coordinators in the AMECEA region on ‘care for our common home’ has disclosed more of his plans for the region saying, “I will encourage Conferences to engage in activities that are building the creation as new model of development and also challenge them to have a day of reflection on the joy of life that can be drawn from the Faith as a condition for development.”
The online engagements convened under the theme Laudato Si and biodiversity loss: African Catholic Clergy lead the way,” covered various topics including the significance and role of biodiversity to the African continent; scientific evidence about biodiversity within the framework of New Deal for Nature and People; ecological conversion and; engaging the Catholic faithful to reverse and halt further nature loss.
Fr. Mung’athia who is in the frontline on the issue which will be the main theme for reflection at the 2022 AMECEA Plenary Assembly said, “The theme was very well thought. We have even learnt that many birds and plants that were traditionally known in our continent have become extinct.”
On his part, Dr. Fr. Evarist Ankwasiize a member of the Congregation of Apostle of Jesus (AJ) who is patron of an environmental club in Kisubi University in Uganda told AMECEA Online, “I will be an agent of change. I will champion the planting of indigenous tree in my home parish as soon as rainy season starts and bring the topic to people’s consciousness in my preaching and apostolates.”
Fr. Evarist Ankwasiize who teaches environmental therapy at the university told AMECEA online the significance of the online engagements which helped him understand that “We are co-creators with God and we all depend on nature; and that all creation has rights which human beings need not violate and that manipulating the earth is an act of injustice to the earth itself and future generation of every specie.”
According to the Programs Manager of CYNESA Mr. David Munene, “Bishops have a critical role to play in shepherding their dioceses towards deliberate action on care for environment.”
He said that even the keynote speaker, Monsignor Bruno- Marie Duffe’ the Secretary of the Dicastery for promoting integral Human Development who is based in the Vatican reminded the priests to note that “to listen to the cry of the poor is to encounter and to be touched by the other while to listen to the cry of Mother Earth is to encounter biodiversity, ecosystems, and the littlest of beings.”
Mr. Munene told AMECEA online that “the Catholic clergy who participated in the sessions are expected to be the ambassadors to engage the public and inspire action to live Laudato Si’ and Make the New Deal for Nature and People through small intentional actions” adding that “they are expected to engage political leaders whom they have greater access to more than anyone else.”
In conclusion, Mr. Munene disclosed that, “We shall continue to support the network of the Catholic clergy that was created out of this project and to facilitate dialogue with everyone living on this planet.”
