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The Church is not paying enough or even adequate attention to the horrendous human problems associated with climate change. The issue, in terms of destruction to the lives of tens of millions of people and all future generations, is too serious to prevaricate.
The United Nations Climate Change Conference, that will take place next December in Copenhagen (Denmark), is the last call for a new global climate agreement – the Copenhagen Protocol – to succeed the Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012. Preparatory meetings are being held. The last one took place in Poznan (Poland). There, the importance of the Adaptation Fund, needed to allow the poor countries of the world to deal with the effects of the greenhouse gas emissions, was underlined. Peru is a good case study.
The World Social Forum offers us a unique occasion to reflect upon the relation between mission and world social transformation. The eighth edition of the Forum will be held at the end of this month in the city of Belém (Brazil), at the heart of the Amazon region.
Faith and culture have always been together, since the very beginning of Christianity. Indeed, the ability to turn pagan traditions into Christian ones was one of the big strengths of the Catholic Church. Christmas in Mexico is a very good example.
And can be used as a guide book for inculturation.
The Mexican Christmas, a tradition that started in the 16th century, with the arrival of Spanish missionaries, is a combination of Christian spirit and indigenous traits. And has a unique aspect: the celebrations last for three months!
“The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.” What the Bible tells us in the Psalm (92: 12) is just one of the many examples of the importance and the dignity that is attributed to a unique type of cedar: poetically, it is inviting us to have the some rectitude as a tree. Now, after many centuries of deforestation and, more recently, after decades of war, little remain of the magnificent Lebanese cedar forests. But it is in our hands to help in protecting them: we need to take part in the big internet voting campaign to select the seven wonders of nature and choose what is truly a natural symbol of Christianity.
A simple glass of milk on the breakfast table can carry high environmental costs. Because of this, some farmers and scientists are looking for ways to reduce the impacts of agriculture and livestock, which are responsible for 12 to 14% of global emissions of greenhouse gases. There are already studies to measure the climatic cost of that glass of milk, or of a country’s entire milk production, from raising the cow to the final product on the table.
One of the causes of the inequality in Asia is ‘knowledge poverty’ – the lack of information that helps prevent the impoverished from taking part in the economic, social and political processes.
Some priests called on Catholics to boycott Christmas celebrations in Sri Lanka unless the war and related killings and disappearances end. “Stop all the Christmas celebrations. No Christmas cards, no lights, no decorations, no new clothes. Nothing. We can do that, can’t we?” Father M. Selvaratnam asked during a meeting at the Centre for Society and Religion (CSR) in Colombo. In the past, the government has sponsored Christmas light displays along streets in the capital to acknowledge the Christian holiday.
Protector of the most sacred shrines of Islam, the Saudi monarchy has a special police force that persecutes both moderate Muslims and Christians, in spite of a law allowing the practice of their faith in the privacy of their homes. Among the countries that don’t respect religious freedom, Saudi Arabia has already been classified as the second most intolerant.
