Cotonou, 21 January, 2024 / 9:24 pm (ACI Africa).
The Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development (DPIHD) has advocated for a Church-State “synergy” in the realization of the “Green Church Program”, an initiative of Benin’s Cotonou Archdiocese that “aims to bring about an ecological conversion among the faithful of the Catholic Church.”
Speaking at a Round Table in Cotonou on Saturday, January 20 as part of the Green Church Program, Michael Cardinal Czerny said, “It would be difficult for the Church, even with the support of financial partners and the contribution of the faithful, to provide resources that fall within the sovereign domain of the State.”
Sustaining the Green Church Program, Cardinal Czerny said, “requires mobilization, and ownership by the population is therefore essential.”
“This is also where synergy between Church and State is needed. The Church could be of service to the State and the population through its teaching and research institutions, such as the Catholic University of West Africa,” he said on January 20, the final day of his four-day pastoral trip to the West African nation.
The DPIHD Prefect went on to pledge the Church’s intention to realize its mission as outlined in the May 2015 Encyclical Letter, Laudato Si', and that through collaboration, help the State accomplish its mission of “management”.