What “Organized Religion” Is Doing
Google Image |
Remember when the Amazon forest was
on fire? It was only a few months ago, but so many things have happened since –
more school shootings, mass demonstrations in Latin America and Asia, the
impeachment hearings – it’s hard to remember.
The
Amazon is called "the lungs of the world," absorbing greenhouse
gases that would otherwise harm the planet. It also is home to indigenous
people who rely on the forest's resources. But
besides fires, much of which are due to global warming, say scientists, the
Amazon is being de-forested by rapid commercial and industrial use.
Illegal Cutting
Most
responsible for the deforestation, says the site Save the Amazon Rain Forest, are agriculture,
mostly cattle, and the wood industry. And in the latter, it’s the illegal
cutting that causes the most damage.
What does any of that have to do
with the search for God?
If we believe that, ultimately, God is creator who has
provided us with our common home and all its resources, we should feel ashamed.
Is this how we care for it? And what about the people who suffer – people who are
among the poorest on the planet?
So what is “organized religion,”
which regularly takes it on the chin for being self-interested and
self-promoting, doing? You wouldn’t know because initiatives by religious
groups get little to no attention.
Google Image |
Granted, much of this is a
“Catholic thing,” part of which has to do with the church’s religious mission
in the Amazon region. But its impact is meant to be broad, addressing the
region’s unique problems and the situation of the people who live there.
Only one part of the conclusions of
the synod, held in October at the Vatican, received considerable publicity. The
bishops recommended to the Pope that married men already serving as deacons be
ordained priests. They also recommended that women be ordained deacons. The
pope has said he will seriously consider the recommendations, which were
immediately attacked by conservative Catholic groups, distracting from the
synod’s main recommendations.
But before getting to those, a word
about the process. Although the 185 voting members were mostly bishops, the
point of the synod was to listen to representatives of its inhabitants –
especially indigenous people – and decide what could be done to improve their
physical and spiritual lives.
To this end, around 260 events were held in the region, comprising nine
countries, to prepare for the synod. Most were listening and consultation
sessions, attended by approximately 87,000 people. Those sessions led to the synod’s
working document, which guided the process.
As for the main recommendations, the final
document, submitted to Pope Francis, defines a new “ecological sin,” and urges
the church throughout the region to divest itself from “extractive industries
that harm the planet,” according to the National Catholic Reporter.
Against Future Generations
Ecological sin, says the synod document,
“is “against future generations and manifests itself in acts and habits of
pollution and destruction of the environmental harmony, transgressions against
the principles of interdependence and the breaking of solidarity networks among
creatures and against the virtue of justice.”
Many of us are rightfully skeptical
of such documents because they are often placed on library shelves to collect
dust. But to be ultimately effective, human beings must observe what’s
happening and discuss solutions to problems before putting the solutions into
practice.
That’s what the bishops, and all
the people they consulted, were – and are - trying to do. We’ll see what
actions are taken. But whatever stage we’re in in our search for God, how can
we not support their efforts?
Comments
Post a Comment