{"id":12337,"date":"2021-05-28T15:37:13","date_gmt":"2021-05-28T15:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/?p=12337"},"modified":"2021-05-28T16:12:34","modified_gmt":"2021-05-28T16:12:34","slug":"secam-church-in-africa-must-be-in-the-forefront-in-implementing-laudato-si-action-platform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/2021\/05\/28\/secam-church-in-africa-must-be-in-the-forefront-in-implementing-laudato-si-action-platform\/","title":{"rendered":"SECAM: Church in Africa Must Be in the Forefront in Implementing Laudato Si Action Platform"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">As the Church embarks on a seven-year journey towards integral ecology after the Vatican\u2019s launch of <em>Laudato Si\u2019<\/em> Action Platform, clerics from the African continent have emphasized the significance of the Church taking lead in the realization of the project.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThe Church must be at the forefront,\u201d the second Deputy Secretary General of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM)\u00a0Fr. Jean Germain Rajoelison said, while addressing participants from Africa and other continents across the globe during a Webinar session conducted Wednesday, May 26.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He noted that the people need to understand the mission of the Church in the world and the link between evangelization and development, integral human development and integral society and the role of the Church in implementing the Laudato Si Action Platform.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to the SECAM Deputy Secretary General in-charge of Justice, peace and development commission, the Church must play the coordinating role, a task she already holds through the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cEach bishops&#8217; Conference must ensure this coordination in order to create a synergy within the local church so as to achieve communion with the universal Church,\u201d Fr. Germain explained.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He continued and disclose that the Church must also create awareness about <em>Laudato Si\u2019<\/em>, making the people aware of the Pope\u2019s teaching in today\u2019s world which is marked by relativism and religious indifference.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cSuch awareness will help the people of God on the continent to know the dangers that threaten the earth and take action to adopt a responsible attitude in social life and in everyday life, and in our relationship with nature and the environment,\u201d SECAM representative narrated.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Putting emphasis on the role of formation, the cleric hopes that seminaries and religious houses of formation are being educated to be responsible in the protection of the poor and the environment.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He emphasized on the role of pastoral coordination in every diocese highlighting that \u201cChurch leaders have to think and reflect and interpret how to integrate the objectives\u00a0from the Dicastery of Promoting Integral Human Development into the Diocesan pastoral work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Speaking during the same event which was organized by the Global Catholic Climate Movement (GCCM) Africa in collaboration with the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa (AMECEA) and SECAM, the GCCM Program Manager for Africa Fr. Benedict Ayodi highlights that the <em>Laudato Si\u2019<\/em> goals aim to guide \u201cour actions, redefine and rebuild our relationship with each other and our common home and calls for a spiritual and cultural revolution to realize integral ecology.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12365 alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Laudato-Si-Action-Platform-1-300x76.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"76\" srcset=\"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Laudato-Si-Action-Platform-1-300x76.png 300w, https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Laudato-Si-Action-Platform-1-500x129.png 500w, https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Laudato-Si-Action-Platform-1.png 506w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Response to the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor are some of the Laudato Si\u2019 goals that need to guide our action, Fr. Ayodi said and explained, \u201cResponding to the cry of the earth is a call to protect our common home for the wellbeing of all, as we equitably address the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, and ecological sustainability.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Fr. Ayodi who is based in Kenya as GCCM manager underscored that ecological economics and adoption of sustainable lifestyles are some other goals to guide Laudato Si\u2019 Action Platform. \u201cEcological economics acknowledges that the economy is a sub-system of human society, which itself is embedded within the biosphere\u2013our common home while adoption of sustainable lifestyles is grounded in the idea of sufficiency, and promoting sobriety in the use of resources and energy.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">On his part, AMECEA Coordinator for the Department of Promoting Integral Human Development Fr. Paul Mung\u2019athia Igweta shared with the online participants the pastoral impacts of <em>Laudato Si\u2019<\/em> noting that \u201cCaring for our common home is our original vocation and the very first commandment given to humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA As the Church embarks on a seven-year journey towards integral&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12348,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-amecea-news","category-secam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12337"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12367,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12337\/revisions\/12367"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}