Sharing a Global Call to Care for Our Common Home
In his encyclical Laudato Sí, Pope Francis made an urgent appeal for people around the world to come together to care for our common home.
“The climate is a common good, belonging to all and meant for all,” the pope wrote. “I urgently appeal, then, for a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet.”
Ten years later, the pope’s words are still calling the faithful to contemplation and action, as evidenced at St. Brendan the Navigator Parish in Camden, where a Laudato Sí Committee was established as part of the parish’s social justice and peace initiatives.
“We need to care about the world, and I think that’s what Pope Francis has really brought to us,” says Barbara Edmond, a committee member. “God gave us the creation of the earth, and we’re not protecting it.”
“Pope Francis’s message about an integral ecology in Laudato Sí is just a central concept that I think that we in the Church can be leaders in,” says Doug Fox, a parishioner. “I think we need to practice that and model that on a local level, and then it will build up from there.”
Committee members have sought to educate themselves and fellow parishioners about the pope’s teachings, which are centered around integral ecology, the interconnectedness of life on earth.
“People think they know, but when you talk to them, you realize that they’re not really up on how serious this crisis is, and you can’t get people to recognize it by hitting them over the head or by being judgmental or pointing fingers. You’ve got to expose them to it and let them do their own thinking,” says Dianne Smith, chair of the Social Justice & Peace Committee.
The Laudato Sí Committee was awarded a $2,500 Catholic Campaign for Human Development grant from Catholic Charities Maine to be used for educational programs. In late February, that included a presentation in Rockland by Cameroonian priests serving in the diocese. The priests shared information about life in their native country and the environmental challenges it is currently facing.
“I’m hoping that, from this, and seeing what’s going on in Cameroon, people see we have a connection globally,” says Smith.
The main presenters were Father Anthanasius Wirsiy, pastor of the parish, and Father Javis Laban, parochial vicar. Father Laban told those gathered that both internal and external forces have contributed to Cameroon’s environmental issues. He pointed, for instance, to a lack of regulations that has led to deforestation and forest degradation, making it difficult to find a tree in some villages.
“The preservation of trees is not the same as you do here. I think, here, you cannot just go out and start felling trees. Back home, it is normal. I just come out. I get my machete. I go into the bush, and I cut a tree,” he says.
Father Laban says there has also been exploitation of Cameroon’s timberlands, poor management of its other natural resources, and outdated farming practices that leave the land unusable.
“Deforestation, mining, poaching, and agricultural expansion threaten biodiversity. I mean this happens almost on a daily basis,” he says.
Then, there is global climate change, which has altered rainfall patterns and led to prolonged droughts, something he says has been particularly devastating for the poor of Cameroon due to their reliance on natural resources for their livelihoods.
“When you go up to the north of Cameroon, they don’t actually know their seasons anymore. Sometimes, it’s very hot, and the dry season up in the north of Cameroon could be for about eight months. That is too long. Then, there is water scarcity and no access to safe drinking water,” he says. “Climate change has led to both water scarcity and the contamination of water sources in many areas of Cameroon.”
He says in the parish where he was assigned prior to coming to Maine, people had to walk long distances to get water, the result of climate change. He says it has also led to an increase in vector-borne diseases, such as malaria.
After the presentation, parishioners were invited to sample some Cameroonian food, such as fufu and fried plantains, and then to gather in small groups to discuss what they heard.
“The bottom line is that it is affecting the poor, and we have to become much more aware that our behavior, especially here in the West, does play a role in that,” says Smith.
“So much of the time, we put nature over here. We put culture over here. And we don’t really have an understanding of human nature and its relation to the rest of nature in a very integral way. And seeing this example from outside the culture that we all live in makes it easier to see that, easier to recognize that humanity has not figured out how to do this, even though it’s right there in front of us,” says Fox.
“It gives us a much broader global perspective and helps the Church realize that it’s a worldwide Church and that its ministry is to people all over the globe and that a lot of people are suffering. And so, if we care about people, if we care to walk in the steps of Christ, do the things He did and say the things He said, we need to understand that there are people all over the world who are suffering, and we need to be able to minister to them, not just to those right in front of our face,” says Deacon Robert Cleveland. “The things we do have implications across the entire planet.”
Along with Father Wirsiy and Father Laban, Father Joseph Lukong and Father Nsame Venantius, parochial vicars of the Cluster 11 parishes in Bar Harbor, Bucksport, and Ellsworth, joined in the discussion.
The presentation was also seen as an opportunity to bring together parishioners from St. Brendan the Navigator’s three churches: Our Lady of Good Hope in Camden, St. Bernard in Rockland, and St. Francis of Assisi in Belfast.
