AMECEA Bishops launch guidelines on environmental conservation

By Francis Lubega

25^th July 2022

The Catholic Bishops in the East African region under their umbrella the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa (AMECEA) have unveiled a document providing guidelines that strive on addressing environmental challenges and responding to climate change in the region.

At the launch of the guidelines also known as Laudato Si, Chairman of the Integral Human Development Bishop Rogath Kimaryo said the guideline document for the Laudato Si has seven chapters whereby the two are addressing the vulnerable.

This was during Mass of the closing of AMECEA 20th Plenary Assembly at Msimbazi Centre in Dar es Salaam-Tanzania.

According to Bishop Kimaryo, Chapter one is about Response to the cry of the Earth; and the second chapter is about the Response to the Cry of the poor, while the third chapter focuses on Ecological Economics, yet the fourth focuses on Adoption of Sustainable Lifestyles in the Region.

The fifth chapter on the Laudato Si guidelines centers on Ecological Education with the sixth one striving to address Ecological Spirituality, and the last chapter of the guidelines has taken matters of Community Engagement and Participatory Action at heart.

Bishop Kimaryo then said that these guidelines must stream down to Small Christian Communities (SCC) where they should be discussed during meetings. He further called for the translation of the guidelines into the local languages of countries in the AMECEA region.

The Response to the Cry of the Poor is a call to promote eco-justice and defend human life from conception to death, and all forms of life on Earth while the Response to the Cry of the Earth strives at calling for protection for our common home for the wellbeing of all human kinds, as we address the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, and ecological sustainability.

For ten days, the Catholic Bishops and other prelates met in Tanzania for the 20th Plenary AMECEA Assembly held under the theme Environmental Impact on Integral Human Development.

The delegates appreciated the need for action on Mother Nature following man’s action toward her.