The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Kerry answers Pope’s call to care for Sister Earth
THE Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Committee ( JPIC) are inviting Parish Pastoral Councils to take up the urgent challenge put before us all by Pope Francis. In his encyclical ‘ Laudato Si’, he calls on everyone to care for ‘our common home’ and to protect our environment from any further harm. He calls Earth ‘our sister’, and says that ‘ this sister cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her’
One of the themes of Laudato Si is the loss of biodiversity and the JPIC have chosen this as their theme for the Diocese of Kerry Earth Week, which runs from the 17th – 23rd April. Biodiversity, or biological diversity, is the term given to describe the variety of all life on earth. Biodiversity provides humans with food, fresh water and fuel, building materials and even the resources used to develop most modern prescription drugs. For this reason biodiversity can be considered as the very raw material that sustains life on earth.
The JPIC are asking Parish Pastoral Councils to respond to Pope Francis’s challenge by surveying their parish grounds to see what biodiversity exists and then to consider ways to encourage this. The JPIC will be providing the Pastoral Councils with a simple, practical method to undertake this survey, as well as a list of suggested actions for parishes to take to enhance biodiversity and to prevent further loss, including bee decline.
They will be asking people to carry out a similar survey at home in their own gardens. A sample one page flyer – with an introduction to Laudato Si and a checklist on loss of biodiversity – will be supplied to all parishes. They would hope parishes would encourage parishioners to use this checklist at home, by printing them off and leaving them in the church, or inserting them in the parish newsletter.
JPIC will be providing resources for parishes that wish to erect a Laudato Si Tree in the church. The purpose of the Laudato Si Tree is to highlight what the parish community is doing in response to Pope Francis’s challenge to prevent further loss of biodiversity. Liturgical resources will be provided as to how to make best use of the Laudato Si Tree. Other resources will be available under the ‘Justice’ section of the diocesan website.