Cardinal Peter Turkson addressing Catholics in Harare on Laudato Si
Cardinal Peter Turkson on 02 March 2018 addressed hundreds of Catholics including priests and religious at Arrupe University where he stressed on the need to take care of the environment basing the discussion on Laudato Si, the Papal Encyclical that deals with environmental issues. Cardinal Turkson, who is the Prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development urged the church to take care of the environment and to discourage all acts that lead to environmental degradation. He said people should strive to change their lifestyles, attitudes and perceptions so as to protect the environment from further degradation.
People pay attention during a lecture on Laudato Si that was presented by Cardinal Turkson at Arrupe University.
Cardinal Turkson stated that people should cultivate the spirit of caring for the common home that provides for all. He challenged the church leadership to be connected to issues to do with the environment and to encourage church members to explore ways of promoting ecological safety. Cardinal Turkson said the degradation of the environment is as a result of human actions and as such it was the duty of everyone to see to it that the environment was restored and preserved. He called for environmental justice at all levels arguing that the destruction of the environment has devastating effects for all people.
Pope Francis’ Encyclical Laudato Si is a worldwide wake up call to help humanity understand the destruction that man is rendering to the environment and his fellow man. While addressing the environment directly, the document’s scope is broader in many ways as it looks at not only man’s effect on the environment, but also the many philosophical, theological, and cultural causes that threaten the relationships of man to nature and man to each other in various circumstances. https://focusoncampus.org/