Staff at Catholic Secretariat in Ethiopia Discuss How to Care for Creation

Staff at Catholic Secretariat in Ethiopia Discuss How to Care for Creation

CANAA || By Makeda Yohannes, Ethiopia || 01 September 2016

The staff of the Ethiopian Catholic Secretariat (ECS) Thursday, September 1 commemorated the World Day of Prayer for creation by getting together to pray and discuss about how they can contribute to the care of creation.

September 1 is the World Day of Prayer for the care of creation.

The Executive Director of the Ethiopian Catholic Church Social and Development Commission (Caritas Ethiopia) Mr. Bekele Moges wanted the getting together to go beyond discussion calling on the members present “to make a pact to make changes in our life to play our part in the protection of our common home.”

“Every action that we take in our daily life from the plastic bags we use for shopping to our choice of type of bulb we use in our homes and the amount of paper we print in our office has an effect in the environment,” Mr. Moges said and added, “There is no small contribution, we must put the environment in consideration before we make the smallest decision and that way we can play a small part in protecting our mother earth.”

Mr. Abel Mussie from the ECS Pastoral Department presented highlights from the Encyclical letter of the Holy Father Pope Francis, Laudato Si. He explained the cry of mother earth for help and gave some practical examples from Ethiopia, stressing on the need for immediate reaction from each and every individual.

ECS staff discussed on how they can incorporate environmental protection in the projects they implement throughout the country.

They all saw the need for creating awareness about the urgent need to care for creation and that they can all play a role by passing on the message to a neighbor and people they meet on different occasions to make a tangible difference.

The event concluded with a prayer for creation and the prayer for peace and the Angelus prayer when the midday bell rang.

Laudato Si has been translated into the widely spoken Amharic language and distributed to readers. It is expected that it will soon be translated into other local languages.

To mark the World Day of Prayer for the care of creation this year, Pope Francis has added the care of creation to the traditional sets of both the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.

Additional information by Father Don Bosco Onyalla, Nairobi