AMECEA: Integral Human Department Set to Create Awareness on Laudato Si’ Guidelines
Fr. Paul Igweta Coordinator PIHD
Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
In an effort to enlighten the region of Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa (AMECEA) on Laudato Si’ guidelines document that was launched at the close of the 20th Plenary Assembly of AMECEA bishops last year in Dar es salaam, Tanzania, the department of Promoting Integral Human Development (PIHD) is set to create awareness to member conferences so as to own the document.
“There is need to have an implementation strategy of Laudato Si’ Guidelines to help member conferences familiarize themselves with the document so they can go beyond just having it in shelves but to act,” AMECEA’s Coordinator for the PIHD, Fr. Paul Mung’athia Igweta said in an interview Thursday, September 14, prior to the first workshop to be held in Kenya.
According to Fr. Igweta, the workshops on creating awareness on Laudato Si’ implementation guidelines in the region, will help to strategize how the guidelines can be spoken about and understood in dioceses, parishes, various groups in the Church including Small Christian Communities (SCCs).
“Going forward, this will be the road map as we also share about the findings after the research that was conducted in the region to find out if the people know about the existence of the Laudato Si’ Encyclical, what they know about it and how they evaluate it.”
To start off the exercise, Fr. Igweta has organized the first workshop to be held in Nairobi, Kenya, from 19th-20th September, bringing together participants from Dioceses within the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) including coordinators for Caritas, Justice and Peace and those working as environmental officers.
During the two-day workshop, the participants will share possible practical actions for implementation of Laudato Si’ for all the seven goals proposed by the Holy father including: Response to the cry of the earth, response to the cry of the poor, ecological economics, adoption of sustainable lifestyles, ecological education, ecological spirituality and community Resilience and empowerment.
From the workshop, the PIHD coordinator expects participants to continue with activities promoting ecological conservation, adaptation, mitigation as they focus on being environmental supportive.
During the launch of Laudato Si’ guidelines last year, it was suggested that the guidelines need to be translated into the local languages of countries in the AMECEA region so that everybody can understand the document.
