Call to focus on human life and dignity

BEING a Catholic and social activist focusing on human rights and environmental issues, I welcome the recent Vatican document urging Catholics to disinvest from the armaments and fossil fuel industries and to closely monitor companies in sectors such as mining to check if they are damaging the environment.

Contained in a 220-page manual for church leaders and workers to mark the fifth anniversary of Pope Francis’ landmark encyclical Laudato Si (Praised Be), the section on finance states that people “could favour positive changes... by excluding from their investments companies that do not satisfy certain parameters.” One action point called on Catholics to shun companies that cause harm to human or social ecology (such as abortion and armaments) and to the environment (such as fossil fuels).

What is significant in this document, called “Journeying Towards Care for Our Common Home”, is that it addresses the core principle of human rights, which is the right to life, in a comprehensive perspective that integrates care for the environment without falling for the cultural and ideological wars between the political right and left.

There is a tendency among people in Western societies to pick and choose life issues on the basis of ideological disposition, forsaking the common good. For example, certain liberal groups that are against the arms trade because it kills innocents would support indiscriminate abortion in the name of women’s rights.

In the Malaysian context, there is a need for politicians to go beyond ethno-religious politics and focus on human life and dignity that is in harmony with the environment. Malaysia will not progress as a nation if it continues to be obsessed with race and religion.