Catholic Bishops to partner government to address environmental challenges

Accra, Nov.24, GNA- The Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference (GCBC) has expressed commitment to partnering the Government to address national environmental challenges.

The Conference, as part of the pledge to protect the environment, launched a one million tree planting exercise in April 2021 to support Government’s Green Ghana project aimed at planting five million trees in a day across the country.

Most Reverend Charles Gabriel Palmer-Buckle, the Metropolitan Archbishop of Cape Coast, said this on Wednesday in Accra at the launch of the GCBC’s five-year “Laudato Si” Action Programme (LSAP)-an environmental protection campaign – for the Catholic Church in the country.

The programme, spanning from 2022 to 2026 is a response to Pope Francis’ call during his fifth anniversary in 2020 to address environmental challenges across the world.

The Metropolitan Archbishop said the Church would sustain the annual tree-planting agenda and mobilise all communities at the Diocesan and Parish levels to take concrete actions on protecting the ecosystem.

The programme will establish an effective programme management infrastructure within the National Catholic Secretariat to facilitate a well-coordinated implementation, monitoring, reporting and evaluation of the Church’s programme of action.

Archbishop Palmer-Buckle who is also the Episcopal Promoter of the GCBC LSAP, called on Ghanaians to prepare for the future by taking good care of the environment.

He advised Ghanaians to consider the environment as a gift from God and initiate positive measures to protect it from destruction and degradation.

The Archbishop expressed worry about the improper disposal of waste, indiscriminate felling of trees, farming along water bodies, building in waterways and other negative human practices, which were endangering nature.

He noted that some species of plants, animals, birds, insects and aquatic creatures that helped in maintaining the ecosystem had become extinct partly because of bad human practices.

He stated that some negative human activities had changed the pattern of the climate and called on the law enforcement agencies to prosecute persons found guilty to serve as deterrent to offenders.

Most Reverend Henryk M. Jagodzinski, the Apostolic Nuncio to Ghana, launching the Programme, expressed optimism that it would create a new culture of spirituality, care and work of the Catholic Church in Ghana.

“The Plan presented an integrated approach to human development and will help the Church to better demonstrate integral human development as defined in Catholic social teaching,” he said.

The Apostolic Nuncio asked the Church to develop an integrated reporting framework on the progress of the plan for its successful implementation.

Source: Ghana News Agency