Johannesburg, 20 May, 2022 / 3:00 pm (ACI Africa).
There is need for Christians to take issues of climate change “very seriously”, a Catholic Priest in South Africa has said.
In an interview with ACI Africa on the sidelines of a three-day workshop on Pope Francis Encyclical Laudato Sí “on care for our common home,” the Director of the Justice and Peace Commission (JPC) of Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference (SACBC) recalled the devastating effects of recent floods in South Africa, and challenged the people of God in the country to “preach the gospel” of the “sacredness of creation”.
“It’s time to take climate change very seriously. We have seen what is happening in South Africa, the floods that we have seen in Durban; we have seen the water scarcity in Eastern Cape,” Fr. Stanslaus Muyebe said in reference to last month’s floods in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal Province and parts of Eastern Cape.
He added, “I think it is very important as Christians to look at the sacredness of creation, and to preach that gospel, the sacredness of creation, the wonderful things that God has done in our creation, which we are taking for granted.”
In the Wednesday, May 18 interview, the official of JPC explained in reference to creation, “We have been destroying it with consumerism. As Christians in South Africa, we can be at the center of ecological conversion, but not just for us and our families but also for our neighbors to quench atheism.”