Sister Earth

GUEST EDITORIAL BY MICHAEL SHACKLETON – There is an intimately close bond between human life and the rest of creation.Perhaps the first one to appreciate what this means was St Francis of Assisi, whose deep sense of belonging to creation and nature was at the heart of his spirituality.

He fraternised with God’s creatures, calling them his sisters and brothers.

In his Canticle of the Sun he praises God for Brother Sun, Sister Moon, Sister Water, Brother Fire, Sister Earth and Sister Death. He felt in his inner soul that he needed these in order to live, adore and serve God the Creator.

Now in the 21st century, we are almost reluctantly beginning to appreciate that Sister Earth is the only home we have, the environment where we develop and thrive, and our Sister is under threat. Human activity is endangering her.

A good example of this appeared last week when the World Health Organisation’s report on pollution in 1600 cities worldwide found that only 12 per cent of them meet the guideline levels for small particles of dust and harmful chemical pollutants that can penetrate and lodge deep inside human lungs.

Alarmingly, South Africa’s major cities were on the list of culprits.

The report urged cities to improve public transport and urban developments that are attractive to pedestrians and cyclists, in other words, cut down on fossil fuels and their emissions.

As far back as 1971, Pope Paul VI sounded the alert in his apostolic letter Octogesima adveniens, when he commented: Not only is the material environment becoming a permanent menace from pollution and refuse, new illness and absolute destructive capacity, but the human framework is no longer under man’s control, thus creating an environment for tomorrow which may well be intolerable.

Governments and environmentalists know how injurious carbon and other emissions into the atmosphere are to our lives. Sometimes they attempt to come to grips with eliminating or decreasing their frightening effects. Sometimes they deny the gravity of the threat we all face. But the issue is no longer debatable.

The Church is showing it is ready to raise international awareness of the Christian duty to respect nature as God’s gift to us, and to respect Sister Earth and all she means to life on the planet.

Three days after his election, the present pope told journalists that he had taken the name of Francis of Assisi because Francis was a man of poverty, who loved and protected creation.

Not long afterwards he condemned consumerism and a culture of waste.

He then followed later with these words: Let us be channels through which God can water the earth, protect all creation and make justice and peace flourish.

Last year during World Youth Day in Brazil, he told the indigenous people around the Amazon to resist the encroachment on their forests by agribusiness enterprises, because God had entrusted these to humanity and they should not be indiscriminately exploited.

In reminding us that St Francis was a man of poverty who loved and protected creation, the pope highlights how the plundering and pollution of our natural surroundings brings about marginalisation of communities and the resultant humiliation our fellow human beings have to endure.

Fr Federico Lombardi SJ, the papal spokesman, has stated that Pope Francis is preparing a document, maybe an encyclical, devoted to the necessity of caring for and protecting the environment.

The pope might take a strong moral stand and present proposals for the way the Church will have to be upfront and vocal in its dioceses, parishes, institutions, schools and homes to diminish the harm we may be doing to the ecology collectively and individually.

We should pray for the grace to see Christ in creation so as to heal and reclaim it, because the earth is beautiful and is in need of our caring stewardship.