The leaders of Catholic Religious Orders of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands met for their annual meeting at Alexishafen, Madang from March 4 to 11 March.
As part of the meeting of the Federation of Religious, Pope Francis’ 2015 Document ‘Laudato Si – Care for our common home’ was used to highlight issues in regards to religious life in PNG / SI.
Members of the Federation of Religious met with the Pope’s Ambassador for PNG/SI, Archbishop Kurian Mathew Vayalunkal, who encouraged the Religious leaders to become role models and witnesses, wherever they are.
Archbishop Kurian spoke to them at length, on matters relating to Religious and community life.
He said the people of the world need to address the crisis in the world of abuse of the environment, but also of other creatures and people of our society, especially people who are vulnerable.
He added that the lands of PNG and SI, mountains and seas are sacred and need to be managed and not exploited: by the removal of trees without reforestation, the overfishing of PNG / SI waters and the use of land for crops that will give a quick, short term return, but causes harm to the soil.
“In the past it was okay to drop food scraps but as we continue to be a “throwaway society” we now drop all sorts of rubbish for other people to clean after us. The rubbish makes our community ugly, spoiling our streets and then gets into rivers and sea causing harm to all God’s creatures that need the water to live and thrive,” says Archbishop Kurian.
He stressed that everything we do comes at a cost and that if we continue to develop and want to live better lives, we need to find a balance to only use the resources from our world we need rather than consume everything and leave nothing for others and future generations.
“As Religious Leaders we propose to our own communities to live simpler lives critiquing our use of our planet’s resources.”
“The Religious Leaders invite the people of PNG / SI to find ways to live a simpler life so that the gifts of our Mother Earth are easily shared,” he added.
Picture: The group present at the AGM of the Federation of Religious.)