City priests laud KCBC’s move of asking catholics to acknowledge sins against environment.
Newsletters and e-mails in Mumbai are asking people to care for environment considering it a sacred duty after the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council (KCBC) announced that Catholics can include sins against environment when they go for confession.
Fr Felix Rebello of St Xavier’s Church, Panvel, who edits a newsletter on environment, said Catholics elsewhere in India should follow the Kerala church’s example. “People know about moral sins but weren’t taught to believe that destruction of nature was wrong too,” he said. “I hope the message goes out to the diocese here and influences people’s views on environment.”
The Kerala church has said that the directive about inclusion of environmental sins in confessionals will be sent to its dioceses in February and March. Father Stephen Alathara, spokesman for KCBC, said, “A policy has already been finalised — the first part is about its theological and social aspects, and the second deals with the action plan that will take the policy to our institutions; we run 5,800 schools and over 190 colleges. The last part will be about implementing it at the parish level.”
“At present, we are concerned with Kerala. But we will ask the Catholic Bishops Conference of India to take it to the national level,” said Alathara.
“Sins depend on a person’s conscience; if one feels his/her conscience saying that something is a sin, it should be confessed.”
For many church members in Mumbai, care of environment is already a part of their religious duty. Dr Francin Pinto, a professor in environment management in Mumbai, said, “For me, respecting environment is important. Every action of mine has to reflect that philosophy.”
Pinto was involved in the Mumbai churches’ ‘Care for creation’ project in 2011 when different parishes were encouraged to adopt and promote environment-friendly ideas among its members. Some churches encouraged recycling of garbage, others promoted rainwater harvesting projects. “Christ’s commandment ‘Love thy neighbour as yourself’ can be extended to ‘Love your environment like thyself’,” said Pinto.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}