AMECEA: Develops Laudato Si’ Guidelines Secretary General Emphasizes Practical Activities

Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA

During a review workshop for the technical team which is developing Laudato Si’ implementation guidelines for use by the Catholic Church in eastern Africa region, AMECEA Secretary General has stressed coming up with practical activities so that all within the region can respond to Pope Francis’ invitation on care for our common home.

“As you develop the Laudato Si’ guidelines, ensure you focus on those practical and simple activities which address environmental issues that will be positively received by the targeted groups in AMECEA region,” Very Rev. Fr. Anthony Makunde told the technical team on Tuesday, July 20, as they commenced a four-day review workshop in, Nairobi, Kenya.

The team reviewing the zero draft which was developed in June, comprised of representatives from various organizations in Kenya and Malawi including, the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA), Catholic Youth Network for Environmental Sustainability in Africa (CYNESA), Global Catholic Climate Movement (GCCM), Association of Sisterhoods in Kenya (AOSK), Caritas Africa, Association of Consecrated Women in Eastern and Central Africa (ACWECA), Episcopal Conference of Malawi- Catholic Justice and Peace Commission (ECM-CJPC) and AMECEA.

During his opening speech, AMECEA Secretary General Fr. Makunde reminded the team that the population of Catholics in the region is significant so much that “if the guidelines can move them to prioritize and implement Laudato Si’, the results would lead to the highest level of a changing machinery in the eastern Africa society.”

He added addressing the participants, “It will be fair for you as the technical team, to position yourselves and reason as the implementors would, so the outcome of your guidelines is not abstract.”

Fr. Makunde also emphasized inculturation, reminding the team to consider developing guidelines which are applicable in the day to day life of the African people and to “borrow the positive acts in African cultural backgrounds which our forefathers implemented to preserve and care for Mother Earth.”

“Even though we have acquired the Western civilization and Western knowledge, when it comes to real life we are Africans and this is why we have to go back to our roots and embrace our traditional practices on ecological conservation.”

The Secretary General asked the team to speed up the process knowing that so many other groups within the region and across the globe including various churches and political leaders are committed to fulfilling the Pope’s invitation and hence they need not lag behind.

The team agreed to apply the seven Laudato Si’ Goals (LSG) developed by Vatican to be the titles for the guideline Chapters. The goals grounded in the Laudato Si’s concept of integral ecology, include: “response to the cry of the earth; response to the cry of the poor; ecological economics; adoption of simple lifestyles; ecological education; ecological spirituality; and emphasis on community involvement and participatory action.”

AMECEA is an acronym which stands for the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa and comprises of eight bishops’ conferences: Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Sudan/ South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia with Somalia and Djibouti as affiliate member.