A Formator at St. Peter’s Major Seminary- Pedu in the Catholic Archdiocese of Cape Coast, Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Abbey-Quaye has stated that the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference since 1965 had advocated for the care of the environment through their teachings, communiques and pastoral letters.
As the Keynote Speaker at the launch of Goal Six of the Laudato Si Action Programme by the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference (GCBC) at the National Catholic Secretariat on March 16, he said, “The Conference’s teachings and advocacy on ecological care in Ghana goes way back into history, indeed, to the very beginnings of the Bishops’ Conference itself”.
In summarizing the contributions of the Bishops’ Conference to ecological care in Ghana from 1965 till now, he contended that the remarkable and admirable consistency with which the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference has articulated the need for environmental care in Ghana within the past 70 years and more shows two significant things.
According to him, “the Bishops’ Conference sees the care of the environment in Ghana not as something peripheral to their episcopal ministry but as an integral aspect of the Church’s evangelizing mission in Ghana.”
He stated that “the Conference is desirous of and willing to contribute their quota to the care of the environment in Ghana while at the same time encouraging other Religious Bodies, the Government, individuals and other relevant stakeholders to do the same.”
he averred “What is even more remarkable here is the fact that over all these years, the Bishops’ Conference has not only talked the talk on environmental care but have also walked the talk on the care of the environment in Ghana through the implementation of various concrete and practical ecological policy initiatives such as the Report on the Case Study on Land Grabbing in Ghana published in 2016, the ongoing Electronic Waste Management Project, dubbed, Care for Our Common Home initiated in 2018 and the annual Arbor Day/Week celebrations in June each year.”
He added: “The annual Arbor Day/Week celebrations which began in 1925 under Governor Sir Gordon Guggisberg (1919-1927) as a national policy to encourage the planting of trees by citizens was taken over by the Catholic Church in Ghana in the late 1970s as the Church’s own unique way of creating awareness on the need to care for the environment in Ghana.”
“Since the early 1980s, tens of thousands of trees have been planted across the length and breadth of Ghana by Catholic school children and faithful. Till date, the Arbor Day/Week celebration remains by far the most consistent practical ecological policy initiative of the Catholic Church in Ghana,” he revealed.
Goal Six of the Laudato Si Action plan christened, “Ecological Spirituality” aimed at protecting the environment from destruction is among the seven goals in response to environmental challenges and as a contribution to the global action programme. These seven goals provide guidance on urgent and immediate actions need to be taken in the care of our common home.
The GCBC’s action plan was therefore in response to Pope Francis’ seven-year encyclical “Laudato Si” action programme developed in May 2021, to respond to environmental challenges in the world.
The objective of GCBC’s programme was to sustain the annual tree-planting agenda by mobilizing all ecclesial communities at the diocesan and parish levels to take concrete actions.
According to Fr. Abbey-Quaye, the Bishops’ Conference since 1965 had suggested to the Ghana government ways through which these challenges can be solved.
They (Bishops) also called on Ghanaians in their communiques, pastoral letters and other documents to take care of the environment and prevent harmful activities.
Fr. Abbey acknowledged the fact that the Bishops’ Conference did not only talked about these challenges in their letters but had made practical progress in finding solutions to the ecological challenges in the country.
“The Bishops’ Conference has not only talked the talk on environmental care but have also walked the talk on the care of the environment in Ghana through the implementation of various concrete and practical ecological policy initiatives”
As a conscious effort to respond to Pope Francis’ encyclical on Laudato Si, Caritas Ghana; a development agency of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference (GCBC) is supporting in the implementation of the GCBC Laudato Si Action Plan through various project interventions.
Caritas Ghana is being supported by Caritas Korea to implement two (2) of the global goals which are the response to the cry of the Earth through the Action area Sustainable Waste Management which is being implemented in the Catholic Archdiocese of Tamale under the Electronic Waste Collection Programme and the response to the cry of the poor through the action area Vocational and Technical Skill Development for the Youth.
