“If, today, Uganda loses close to 55 hectares of vegetation each year, it is partly because some people are taking more from the environment than they need, in order to meet their insatiable appetite for material wealth,” they lament in their 38-page March 2025 Pastoral Letter in which they also decry moral decay in Uganda, saying violence has extended to foetuses and the newly born babies.
UEC members condemn “the harm” that human actions cause to the earth drawing inspiration from Pope Francis’ May 2015 Encyclical Letter on care for our common home, Laudato Si’, and his October 2023 Apostolic Exhortation on the climate crisis, Laudate Deum.
They say, “We echo with Pope Francis: This sister (earth) now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her.”
“We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will,” the Catholic Church leaders laments, adding, “The violence present in our hearts, wounded by sin, is also reflected in the symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air and in all forms of life.”
In their Pastoral Letter, Uganda’s Catholic Bishops underscore the need to empower existing institutions meaningfully to combat environmental degradation.
“Laws and policies have been enacted over the years to create institutions responsible for coordination and protection of the environment. Their main function is to protect the environment in accordance with the various laws of the country,” they note.
“We, therefore, believe that if environmental degradation continues unabated, it is not because the country lacks mechanisms to address this problem. Rather, there is a need to empower these institutions to perform their functions more effectively and without fear or favour, and the population to play its part as prescribed in the various laws.”
They go on to acknowledge the link between environmental degradation and climate change in Uganda, saying the two challenges continue to “cause serious disruptions in food production in all parts of the country, leading to food and income insecurity in many families.”
UEC members express their sympathies and spiritual solidarity with victims of adverse effects of climate change, which they say manifests in floods, landslides and prolonged dry seasons.
“Chronic landslides in areas such as Mt. Elgon and Mt. Rwenzori have displaced, killed and maimed many people over the years. We express our sympathies with and pray for those affected,” they say in their March 2025 Pastoral Letter.
