AMECEA PLENARY: Uncaring for Environment has Caused Divisions, Conflict in the World, Says Vatican Official
Cardinal Tagle
By Mwenya Mukuka
The Catholic Bishops in the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa (AMECEA) have gathered for their 20th plenary assembly in the coastal town of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.
The more than 100 Catholic Bishops from Ethiopia, Uganda, Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Kenya, and Eretria have gathered under the theme: Environmental Impact on Integral Human Development.
The plenary assembly is from 9th to 18th July,2022.
And speaking in his homily during the opening mass of the Plenary Assembly held at Benjamin Mkapa stadium, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples at the Vatican, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle underscored the importance of the theme at a time when the world is faced with environmental challenges.
Cardinal Tagle said that divisions and animosity between creatures and human beings are due to noncaring of the environment resulting in helplessness in the world.
He noted that lack of care for the environmental has resulted into conflicts, violence and divisiveness in the world.
The Cardinal however was grateful that Catholic Bishops, the clergy, the religious and the laity from Eastern African Countries have gathered in Tanzania to proclaim the Good News that humanity need to come together.
“Noncaring for the environment is manifesting into noncaring for one another as seen in many conflicts in the world. God wants us to be closer to one another because in Jesus, and the Holy Spirit God is closer to us. And we should be bear to one another,” Cardinal Tagle said.
In making reference to the three readings of the day taken from Deuteronomy 30:10-14, Colossians 1:15-20 and Luke 10:25-37 during his homily, Cardinal Tagle noted how they all spoke to the closeness of God to creation and humanity.
He asked why humanity should destroy creation if all that was created invisible and visible has the presence of Christ.
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