Dear Editor,
It is always a joy to listen to a person like Cardinal Cláudio Hummes who speaks with a language that appeals to everyone especially the poor. His contribution to the Church in Brazil is really noteworthy and this has given Pope Francis courage to appoint Cardinal Hummes as the director of REPAM (Pan Amazon Network) even after his retirement. I had the privilege of interviewing him for the Catholic Media in Guyana and when asked, how is this movement or initiative possible when as we talk here, the Amazon is being mutilated, he said, “we need courage with a prophetic voice and listen to the cry of the people and cry of the earth”. This is the motto of any charitable institution. I would like to point out three important aspects of his visit to Guyana.
In his opening address to the Clergy, religious and lay leaders, Cardinal Hummes presented the call of Pope Francis to care for our common home. It is the duty of each one of us. As usual, many times, documents and statements by the Church fall on deaf ears. This must not happen now because as the French official said at the Climate Change Conference in Paris, ‘Later will be too late.” Time is here for us to stop and retrospect on our own behaviour towards our mother nature or else we will be doomed by our own mother earth. The age of doom is here with tsunami, earthquakes and other natural calamities.
Nature is voiceless, so we as Church have to be the voice. This voice has to be prophetic because it can cut like the two edged sword and its repercussion could be experienced throughout the world. The Cardinal spoke the vision of the Holy Father for the Church as regards to nature. He emphasized that we need to be courageous to speak up against injustices done to our mother earth and its indigenous people who keep our rivers and forests alive.
The Cardinal’s primary focus is Amazon reserves and its preservation. As Pope Francis told the Bishops’ conference of Brazil at the world youth day in Rio, the Amazon is a test for the Church in Brazil. Guyana makes up 2.8% of the Amazon Basin so we cannot stay away from the discussions that are already in place. As the Cardinal said, some of the governments and NGO’s are already on the job, so the Church needs to join them in caring for our Amazon reserves, which produces nearly 20% of the oxygen on the planet. The Climate Change Conference in Paris said, ‘we need to change completely how we treat the planet.’ We cannot lay back to watch our planet becoming shapeless and formless. The Cardinal expressed that we need to change to other forms of energy and cleaner energy. He said this by articulating our difficulties if we have to change from petrol energy to other forms of energy. Can we really think of life without petrol? That is a million dollar question we need to answer.
As Guyanese, we can also bring our experiences of heat and flooding to the discussion. This is a crucial moment for the planet. We have to safeguard our planet because we have borrowed this earth from our future generations.
Yours faithfully,
Jerri Melwin Dias SJ
