Aware of the environmental and climatic urgency, Synod Fathers are concerned that the effects of deforestation will be irreversible.
By Claire Lesegretain, LaCroix, October 24, 2019
Participants of the Synod of Bishops’ special assembly on the Amazon came down heavily on the deforestation and predatory exploitation of the Amazonian forest for the benefit the world’s elite, whose luxurious lifestyle they spoke against.
“The economy in the Amazon is unfair because all its wealth goes to the West while poverty remains at home,” said Bishop Karel Marinus Choennie of Paramaribo, Suriname, at a press briefing on the Synod in Rome, Oct. 22.
“The Amazonian forest is disappearing because the rich world wants to maintain its luxurious lifestyle and consume cheap meat. If we do not adopt a more sober lifestyle, then deforestation will continue,” he said.
Quoting the data compiled by a German physicist from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, the Bishop of Paramaribo pointed out that 5 percent more deforestation will suffice to reach the point of no return for the Amazon forest. This may happen in just 10 years, said the bishop, whose nation, Suriname, shares a border with Brazil.
As Bishop Choennie pointed out, it is a question of “training the Western and Chinese populations who do not realize the seriousness” of the situation and who, for the moment, “are not ready to change their way of life.”
“From that point on, the effects of deforestation will be irreversible,” Bishop Choennie said.However, “what is happening in the Amazon has repercussions on global warming and on the entire planet,” said Archbishop Hector Miguel Cabrejos Vidarte of Trujillo and President of the Bishops’ Conference of Peru, at the press briefing.
“There is therefore an urgent need to take all necessary measures against deforestation,” he added.Aware of this urgency, the bishops underlined the role of the Church in educating and leading people to opt for a more united life.
As Bishop Choennie pointed out, it is a question of “training the Western and Chinese populations who do not realize the seriousness” of the situation and who, for the moment, “are not ready to change their way of life.”
“No one can say “I have nothing to do with it” while the earth is burning,” said Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu of Kinshasa (DR Congo).He was invited to the Synod to draw a parallel between the Amazon and the Congo Basin, another huge forest region which has also fallen victim to predatory exploitation. According to him, the “inaction is already a collaboration.
Some more responsible than others
But if everyone is responsible, some are “more responsible than others,” in the eyes of Cardinal Ambongo Besungu, starting with the Chinese, North American and European mining groups.
“We want treaties so that these companies and enterprises are held legally responsible” for deforestation, Archbishop Cabrejos added, announcing “clear indications on this point” in the final document of the Synod.
When he chaired the Natural Resources Commission of the DR Congo Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Ambongo Besungu participated in the Dodd-Frank Act, adopted by the US Congress in 2010.
This Act asks American companies to disclose the origin of their raw materials to discourage the exploitation and trade of minerals from areas controlled by armed groups.
“This law has considerably reduced arms trafficking around mining pits,” according to the Archbishop of Kinshasa, who called on the West to pass similar laws to limit logging in the Amazon and the Congo Basin.The Synod Fathers are also considering an extension of the Pan-Amazon Church Network, founded in 2014 to prepare the Synod, to “implement the Synod decisions.
“To avoid the final outcome of the Synod becoming “another document on a shelf,” according to Archbishop Cabrejos, the bishops wish to “create a specific ecclesial body, bringing together the nine Amazonian countries on one platform.”It is no coincidence that the pope dedicated this Synod to Saint Francis of Assisi, because its purpose is to rediscover “the wonderful relationship between man and nature,” said Archbishop Cabrejos, a Franciscan.
“When the man calls the sun brother, the mother earth, the sister sea, then it leads him to union with God,” explained the president of the Latin American Bishops’ Council or CELAM at the press meet on Oct. 22, the last day of the circoli minores’ (small groups), working on the first draft of the final Synod document.The General Rapporteur and the Special Secretaries, assisted by experts and the drafting committee, are working on the final document since Oct. 23, which will be later put to the vote.
Article first appeared at: https://international.la-croix.com/news/at-synod-bishops-denounce-luxurious-western-lifestyle/11100