Molly, UK

Molly is a CAFOD volunteer and MP correspondent.

My CAFOD journey started at 16, attending workshops run for Catholic secondary schools in the Hallam Diocese to become a young leader. My stand-out moments include rallying at the IF campaign event in Hyde Park and handing in the 60,000 calls for action we collected at 10 Downing Street (centre of picture above).

Suddenly two years passed. At 18, you think about who you are and who you want to be. You become conscious that adulthood is fast approaching, that decisions you make now will be important. That’s kind of scary!

At that time, the word ‘conscious’ first struck me and has stuck with me since. I don’t quite mean ‘conscious’ in the sense of being alive or awake, but in the sense of being aware. Acting consciously. In particular, I became conscious that I had a platform from which I could strive for change, influenced by my faith and recognition of social justice. I also became conscious that I missed that feeling which I’d always had after a CAFOD event: the feeling that fuelled hope and ambition, an energy for change.

So I got back in contact with CAFOD, and helped run the workshops I had attended, encouraging young people to become campaigners and young leaders. I used social media to campaign and to stay connected with CAFOD’s climate change campaign. I volunteered to be an MP correspondent, writing regularly to my MP.

I was also privileged to be selected as one of the CAFOD volunteers in a delegation to Paris around the 2015 climate change talks. We met fellow campaigners from around the world, listened to incredibly moving poetry and accounts from people who had been personally affected by climate change.

During the evenings, I had doubts that perhaps the talks wouldn’t be a success. I felt it was too little, too late, that we were striving for the impossible, and that nothing I did could make a difference.

But two things happened that made me change my mind. The first seems daft and simple: at a workshop we were encouraged to send a postcard, telling the recipient something we had learned. This came after a session where we were reminded how small changes can make a difference, such as reducing meat consumption, not driving, recycling and so on.

The choices that we all make can be altered, if we become slightly more conscious of the consequences of our actions.In my university house we are guilty of seriously over-using the washing machine and leaving the heating on too long, so I sent my postcard to my housemates in Durham, with one message: You can make a change.

Then at the end of the trip we, as the CAFOD group (which by this point felt more like a family), joined hands with thousands of others at the Eiffel Tower. We made links that couldn’t be broken – moving and chanting together – as one powerful entity.

Paris reinstated something that I already knew, deep down, but had let drift: I can make a change.

We need to think consciously when making everyday decisions: being environmentally conscious, cost conscious, morally conscious. We need to be conscious of how our actions influence others around us: family, friends, children, housemates, that Facebook friend who you haven’t seen for years.

My CAFOD journey is short so far and my knowledge of social, political and economic systems limited, but it is a journey through which I hope to learn so much more, to develop as a person and to continue to make change, from the smallest to the biggest of actions.

Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home

Following a period of irrational confidence in progress and human abilities, some sectors of society are now adopting a more critical approach. We see increasing sensitivity to the environment and the need to protect nature, along with a growing concern, both genuine and distressing, for what is happening to our planet. Let us review, however cursorily, those questions which are troubling us today and which we can no longer sweep under the carpet. Our goal is not to amass information or to satisfy curiosity, but rather to become painfully aware, to dare to turn what is happening to the world into our own personal suffering and thus to discover what each of us can do about it. (Laudato Si’ #19)

Yet all is not lost. Human beings, while capable of the worst, are also capable of rising above themselves, choosing again what is good, and making a new start, despite their mental and social conditioning. We are able to take an honest look at ourselves, to acknowledge our deep dissatisfaction, and to embark on new paths to authentic freedom. No system can completely suppress our openness to what is good, true and beautiful, or our God-given ability to respond to his grace at work deep in our hearts. I appeal to everyone throughout the world not to forget this dignity which is ours. No one has the right to take it from us.(Laudato Si’ #205)

Saint Therese of Lisieux invites us to practise the little way of love, not to miss out on a kind word, a smile or any small gesture which sows peace and friendship. An integral ecology is also made up of simple daily gestures which break with the logic of violence, exploitation and selfishness. In the end, a world of exacerbated consumption is at the same time a world which mistreats life in all its forms.(Laudato Si’ #230)

Hilary, UK

Hilary (centre) worships at St Bonaventure’s parish in the Clifton diocese.

CAFOD’s work in the developing world is threatened by climate change, so as a CAFOD supporter it’s important to make climate-friendly lifestyle changes.

Ours became a livesimply parish in December 2012 and receiving the livesimply award was welcome recognition of work done to build friendships and community spirit in the parish. The biggest challenge was making sure as many people as possible were involved so we could keep the livesimply profile high – a livesimply Thought for the Week in our newsletter helped do this.

We installed our 16 solar panels when we were having some roof repairs and there was already scaffolding on the roof. They cost £22,000 to install and we now get free electricity in daylight hours, and about £1,000 a year through the feed-in-tariff (a fee from the government for energy fed into the national grid). It will take a long time before the panels pay for themselves, but in the meantime our electricity bill has fallen.

The move to becoming a livesimply parish included trying to be more climate-aware at home and work as well as in church. We had a notice at the back of the church asking people to make climate-friendly suggestions and pledges. When I asked what people were doing I got replies such as

eating vegetarian food 3-4 times a week, using non-processed food, using leftovers and not wasting food.

One parishioner has not used her car to drive to work since the livesimply award was made, while another reported a tripling of the number of staff at his workplace cycling to work. Others have downsized their car, are conserving water and growing vegetables in their gardens.

I would encourage other CAFOD supporters to try to help their parishes achieve livesimply status because climate change is of such over-arching importance that it makes you think twice about some of the things we do automatically that may be damaging or wasteful.

To be more environmentally friendly, start first with the low-hanging fruit and try to work up from there. There are lots of ideas in the livesimply materials produced by CAFOD. The slogan ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ is a good one. 

We are so fortunate in this country and it is a gesture of solidarity that we should try in practical ways to try to make our lives a witness.

Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home

Patriarch Bartholomew has spoken in particular of the need for each of us to repent of the ways we have harmed the planet, for “inasmuch as we all generate small ecological damage”, we are called to acknowledge “our contribution, smaller or greater, to the disfigurement and destruction of creation”.He has repeatedly stated this firmly and persuasively, challenging us to acknowledge our sins against creation: “For human beings… to destroy the biological diversity of God’s creation; for human beings to degrade the integrity of the earth by causing changes in its climate, by stripping the earth of its natural forests or destroying its wetlands; for human beings to contaminate the earth’s waters, its land, its air, and its life – these are sins”. For “to commit a crime against the natural world is a sin against ourselves and a sin against God”.(Laudato Si’ #8)

At the same time, Bartholomew has drawn attention to the ethical and spiritual roots of environmental problems, which require that we look for solutions not only in technology but in a change of humanity; otherwise we would be dealing merely with symptoms. He asks us to replace consumption with sacrifice, greed with generosity, wastefulness with a spirit of sharing, an asceticism which “entails learning to give, and not simply to give up. It is a way of loving, of moving gradually away from what I want to what God’s world needs. It is liberation from fear, greed and compulsion”.(Laudato Si’ #9)The continued acceleration of changes affecting humanity and the planet is coupled today with a more intensified pace of life and work which might be called “rapidification”. Although change is part of the working of complex systems, the speed with which human activity has developed contrasts with the naturally slow pace of biological evolution. Moreover, the goals of this rapid and constant change are not necessarily geared to the common good or to integral and sustainable human development. Change is something desirable, yet it becomes a source of anxiety when it causes harm to the world and to the quality of life of much of humanity. (Laudato Si’ #18)Bishop Antoine, Syria

Bishop Antoine Audo is the Bishop of Aleppo.

If you want to know why so many Syrians are seeking a new life in Europe, just come to Aleppo. Large parts of our city have been laid to waste. Bombs and rockets fall every day, and we never know when or where they will hit. We do not feel safe in our homes, in our schools, in the streets, in our churches or in our mosques. It is exhausting to live with this fear hour after hour, day after day.

Even without the shelling, life here would be almost unbearable. Throughout the summer, as temperatures have soared, people have been forced to cope without running water or electricity in their homes. Four out of five people don’t have a job, so families are not able to afford food or basic supplies. The middle-classes have become poor, while the poor are now destitute. Many of those who are still here are elderly. Almost no-one is still in Aleppo by choice: most of those who remain do not have enough money to leave.

I have been the Chaldean Bishop of Aleppo for 25 years, and it fills me with sadness to see what has happened to my city. As President of Caritas Syria, I have chosen to stay so I can lead distributions of food and emergency supplies, with support from Catholics in England and Wales and their aid agency CAFOD. But our work is becoming harder, because more and more of our staff are leaving the country. I do not blame them, but their departure makes the task of helping those in need even more difficult.

In some parts of the country, we have had to suspend our operations. In 2014, my colleagues in the city of Hassakeh provided vulnerable Syrians of every faith with vouchers for food, clothes and school equipment as well as covering the costs of medical treatment. In total, they reached over 20,000 people. But this July, as the city fell to extremists, all our staff had to flee at short notice. One of my colleagues had given birth only three days beforehand.

It is a tragedy that our society has been torn apart, and that so many people have left Syria. It is a particular source of sadness that my fellow Christians are being forced to leave. Our faith has thrived in Syria since the time of the Apostles 2,000 years ago, but today many of our churches stand empty. Aleppo alone used to be home to 150,000 Christians, but today 100,000 of them have departed.

It was not always like this. Christians and Muslims have lived together in Syria for generations, strengthened by our shared values. Even today, as the war rages around us, most people are not interested in sectarian divisions. Not so long ago I came out of my house and there was a Muslim man sitting on the ground outside who had been helped by Caritas. He got to his feet and said, “We know who the Christians are, they are worth their weight in gold.”

Although the Christian communities of Syria are now under great threat from extremist groups, it is important to remember that yet more weapons and yet more bombs will not bring an end to the war. It is time for political leaders all around the world to prioritise peace over their own strategic and economic interests.

Syria is a beautiful country with deep roots in history and humanity. As a Christian, I try to maintain myself in my faith, and to pray that one day my country will be peaceful again. But many people have lost all hope.

When you see images of Syrians who have succeeded in travelling to Europe, please remember that they need food, shelter and compassion. But above all, remember their presence is a sign of a conflict which is continuing to take its toll on millions – including those of us left behind. We, and all Syrians, need peace above all else.

Amoris Laetitia: The Joy of Love

In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul uses the word chrestéuetai. The word is used only here in the entire Bible. It is derived from chrestós: a good person, one who shows his goodness by his deeds. Here, in strict parallelism with the preceding verb, it serves as a complement.

Paul wants to make it clear that “patience” is not a completely passive attitude, but one accompanied by activity, by a dynamic and creative interaction with others. The word indicates that love benefits and helps others. For this reason it is translated as “kind”; love is ever ready to be of assistance.

(Amoris Laetitia #93)

Throughout the text, it is clear that Paul wants to stress that love is more than a mere feeling. Rather, it should be understood along the lines of the Hebrew verb “to love”; it is “to do good”. As Saint Ignatius of Loyola said, “Love is shown more by deeds than by words”. It thus shows its fruitfulness and allows us to experience the happiness of giving, the nobility and grandeur of spending ourselves unstintingly, without asking to be repaid, purely for the pleasure of giving and serving. (Amoris Laetitia #93)

Margaret, Uganda

When Margaret Lotee first trained as a borehole mechanic, the men in her village told her: “Women can’t manage this kind of work. The tools are heavy. You’ll never get the pipes fixed."

Eighteen years later, Margaret is responsible for keeping more than 8,000 people in 10 villages supplied with water. “Now things have changed,” she says. “When the borehole in a village breaks, the men are the first to come for help.” She keeps seven boreholes in working order. It used to be more, but since she passed on her skills to others, she no longer has to travel as widely.

The work of Margaret Lotee and her helpers is vital in Uganda’s arid north-eastern Karamoja region, plagued until recently by tribal violence and army crackdowns as well as drought. Apart from prejudice against her sex, she has had to overcome suspicion among villagers, some of whom persisted in using polluted river water instead of borehole supplies. Others even claimed that the pipes brought disease, but gradually they have been won over.

The pioneering borehole mechanic has helped to transform attitudes in other ways too. “The status of women has changed in our community,” she says. “Now we have the respect of the villagers. The men look at us and see we have values in common. If I call the men now, they respond quickly.

“Before, it was not easy for us women. In Karamoja, the culture is that men see women as people who cannot do anything. In meetings we were not allowed to talk or even to sit near the men, but now everybody comes to village meetings. We all mix and sit and discuss. I want to empower women – to have both women and men working together. Women bring different values and issues to a meeting, such as violence by men against them. Hygiene is another matter that concerns them, because they are at home most with the children.”

Margaret has seven adult children and several grandchildren, but is alone, because her husband has another wife with whom he lives. She conducts training and refresher courses for fellow mechanics as well as looking after her boreholes, a task complicated by lack of resources. Tools and replacement parts are stored in a single location, and often there is no transport.

“When a borehole is broken, first I assess it to see what is wrong, and how much we need to collect from the village’s water committee to pay for repairs,” she says. “Then I go to the spare parts store to collect tools and the part we need.

Sometimes I have to go on foot, which takes about an hour. I might be able to get hold of a motorbike to take everything back to the borehole, but if it has to be carried by hand, I look for some strong men or even children to help.”

What would make the mechanic’s life easier above all else would be to have a set of tools near each borehole. “It can take two or more days to carry out repairs, because the tools are far away in the store, and sometimes when I get to the store they’re not there,” she says. “We have to spend time going from village to village to try and find the toolbox.” In the longer term, she worries about finding younger people to replace her generation, because “we borehole mechanics are all old, and other colleagues have died”.

Margaret Lotee is proud of her role, saying: “My children will remember that their mother was a borehole mechanic.”

Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common HomeThe human environment and the natural environment deteriorate together; we cannot adequately combat environmental degradation unless we attend to causes related to human and social degradation. In fact, the deterioration of the environment and of society affects the most vulnerable people on the planet: “Both everyday experience and scientific research show that the gravest effects of all attacks on the environment are suffered by the poorest”. For example, the depletion of fishing reserves especially hurts small fishing communities without the means to replace those resources; water pollution particularly affects the poor who cannot buy bottled water; and rises in the sea level mainly affect impoverished coastal populations who have nowhere else to go. The impact of present imbalances is also seen in the premature death of many of the poor, in conflicts sparked by the shortage of resources, and in any number of other problems which are insufficiently represented on global agendas.(Laudato Si’ #48)It needs to be said that, generally speaking, there is little in the way of clear awareness of problems which especially affect the excluded. Yet they are the majority of the planet’s population, billions of people. These days, they are mentioned in international political and economic discussions, but one often has the impression that their problems are brought up as an afterthought, a question which gets added almost out of duty or in a tangential way, if not treated merely as collateral damage. Indeed, when all is said and done, they frequently remain at the bottom of the pile. This is due partly to the fact that many professionals, opinion makers, communications media and centres of power, being located in affluent urban areas, are far removed from the poor, with little direct contact with their problems. They live and reason from the comfortable position of a high level of development and a quality of life well beyond the reach of the majority of the world’s population. This lack of physical contact and encounter, encouraged at times by the disintegration of our cities, can lead to a numbing of conscience and to tendentious analyses which neglect parts of reality. At times this attitude exists side by side with a “green” rhetoric. Today, however, we have to realize that a true ecological approach always becomes a social approach; it must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.(Laudato Si’ #49)Davi, Brazil

Davi Kopenawa Yanomami has dedicated his life to working to ensure that the rights, culture and land of Yanomami and Ye’kuana indigenous people are respected.

In 2004, he founded CAFOD partner organisation Hutukara Yanomami Association, HAY. In September 2014, Davi left his home in the Amazon to visit us here in the UK. He walked with CAFOD pilgrims in Hexham and Newcastle Diocese and met school children in Jarrow. He joined the march in London that launched the One Climate One World Campaign.

Hutukara means the World; the World where we live: you and us. Hutukara wants to protect, to preserve the Earth. We want to take care of the streams. Water is a priority. Everything that exists in the planet: the land, water, mountains, trees, the clean air, and we the indigenous people and you, we all live in this World.

Hutukara’s role is to ensure that the land stays alive for our future and generations to come. Hutukara defends the people, the land, the forest, the rivers, the animals, clean air, health and education. We, the Yanomami people, are the guardians of the forest of our country.

Here in the UK, people have understood. They are worried about the lungs of the planet. So they did something. The indigenous people did something, and the people from here did something. We are fighting together to save

the planet. This is very good. It is the first time I have seen a demonstration for our planet. I really liked it.

The role of the Church and CAFOD is really important. The Church can defend indigenous people. It cannot let our land be destroyed. It cannot let our people be destroyed. It cannot let our language, health, traditions, music and dances disappear. The Church can speak on our behalf.

As long as there are Yanomami and our relatives in Brazil and Europe, there will be work to do and we will continue to work and to fight, to speak with other people and with the Government.

CAFOD can have campaigns, report rights violations, say when things are wrong. CAFOD can do that. You live far away. We are there in the mountains, but you know that we are there.

The partner of indigenous people is you: CAFOD, Survival International, Rainforest Foundation. You represent our indigenous people here in the city, in the capital. You can talk on TV, talk to other friends, to other politicians, other governments. You can raise awareness. It is very important that we have friends in the city who watch out for us.

Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home

What is more, Saint Francis, faithful to Scripture, invites us to see nature as a magnificent book in which God speaks to us and grants us a glimpse of his infinite beauty and goodness. “Through the greatness and the beauty of creatures one comes to know by analogy their maker” (Wis 13:5); indeed, “his eternal power and divinity have been made known through his works since the creation of the world” (Rom 1:20). For this reason, Francis asked that part of the friary garden always be left untouched, so that wild flowers and herbs could grow there, and those who saw them could raise their minds to God, the Creator of such beauty. Rather than a problem to be solved, the world is a joyful mystery to be contemplated with gladness and praise. (Laudato Si’ #12)

Many intensive forms of environmental exploitation and degradation not only exhaust the resources which provide local communities with their livelihood, but also undo the social structures which, for a long time, shaped cultural identity and their sense of the meaning of life and community.The disappearance of a culture can be just as serious, or even more serious, than the disappearance of a species of plant or animal. The imposition of a dominant lifestyle linked to a single form of production can be just as harmful as the altering of ecosystems.(Laudato Si’ #145)

In this sense, it is essential to show special care for indigenous communities and their cultural traditions. They are not merely one minority among others, but should be the principal dialogue partners, especially when large projects affecting their land are proposed. For them, land is not a commodity but rather a gift from God and from their ancestors who rest there, a sacred space with which they need to interact if they are to maintain their identity and values. When they remain on their land, they themselves care for it best. Nevertheless, in various parts of the world, pressure is being put on them to abandon their homelands to make room for agricultural or mining projects which are undertaken without regard for the degradation of nature and culture.(Laudato Si’ #146)Mahmoud, Syria / Lebanon

Mahmoud and his family have left their home in Syria, and are now in Lebanon.

It was very hard when the bombing got heavier. People were migrating. The region was so bad, our life was very hard – very dangerous. We never knew if we would be bombed.

A missile struck our house while my wife was in it; I was with my daughters in the souk. My wife died in the house. When the bombardment became heavier, I knew we should leave. I told the girls to come with me and we left with nothing – just the clothes we had. We caught a bus that cost me $2,000. It was a lot of money – a lot of my savings. It took us maybe four days to get here – I don’t remember the time I was so sick.

Everything’s destroyed back home. It was just too dangerous to go out, even for food. Everything is just destroyed. Kidnappings and murders happen a lot there. Those who cannot leave have to stay – the unemployed or the disabled or the poor can’t leave. They are trapped there.

It took us so long to get here because it was so difficult moving through checkpoints. It was very dangerous. We often had to pay a lot of money. After my brother helped me get to the bus, he went back to his home. He is still there and I worry for him.

My wife was the one who worked, she was a supervisor in a clothes shop. The money didn’t quite make ends meet, so our neighbours helped us. I couldn’t work because five years ago, I had open heart surgery. After the surgery, the doctors told me I must not work. I used to be a taxi driver before this, but after my surgery I couldn’t work, also, I couldn’t see out of my left eye after my surgery.

The situation [here in Lebanon] is different, but more difficult than in Syria. We have no furniture here, no mattresses and blankets. We have nothing. When it gets cold, I cuddle my daughters to keep them warm. Even shelter – the tents you can see here – are very difficult to get. There are 15 people in my home at present – we all live in that very small space.

I thought I could support my family by working and paying back money, but I can’t find any work here. Living in the tent is very difficult. It is cold and crowded. We don’t have privacy to eat, to change our clothes and we have been sick since we’ve been here. Medical assistance is very expensive here.

When the medical unit comes to the camp, we get help, but everyone’s case is important. I can’t go there and say, ‘Please help! I’m important – my daughters are important,’ everyone here needs help. Caritas helps the camp – they give mattresses and blankets, they will help me, I have to register yet, but I will do so.

This is our destiny. We can’t do anything. Now we have nothing. I worked for what we had. So did my wife. We had what we needed, but our efforts are gone. It is heartbreaking. Heartbreaking.

I am worried about my daughter. She suffers. She cries all the time at school. She doesn’t want to be away from me, she thinks she will lose me. My other daughters suffer as well. They have nothing here, so they dress in some of the other women’s clothes. How does this make me feel?

We were in a bad situation in Syria. We’re alive, but we have nothing. We have no reason to live. We are desperate. My daughters are desperate because of the change – because of their mother’s death. I worry about the future for them. What do they have? They tell me, ‘We have no future’. But I tell them, ‘The war will end soon.’ We have to pray for peace.

We ask for equality and fairness. That is all. We need security and peace and smiles on the faces of our children once again. What we have lost, we have lost. What matters in our lives is what we have now. The most important thing you can do for us to promote our message. Tell our message to the people in your country. Talk to your people about what has happened here.

Amoris Laetitia: The Joy of Love “Migration is another sign of the times to be faced and understood in terms of its negative effects on family life”. The recent Synod drew attention to this issue, noting that “in various ways, migration affects whole populations in different parts of the world. The Church has exercised a major role in this area. Maintaining and expanding this witness to the Gospel (cf. Mt 25:35) is urgently needed today more than ever… Human mobility, which corresponds to the natural historical movement of peoples, can prove to be a genuine enrichment for both families that migrate and countries that welcome them. Furthermore, forced migration of families, resulting from situations of war, persecution, poverty and injustice, and marked by the vicissitudes of a journey that often puts lives at risk, traumatizes people and destabilizes families. In accompanying migrants, the Church needs a specific pastoral programme addressed not only to families that migrate but also to those family members who remain behind. This pastoral activity must be implemented with due respect for their cultures, for the human and religious formation from which they come and for the spiritual richness of their rites and traditions, even by means of a specific pastoral care…(Amoris Laetitia #46)

The Lord’s presence dwells in real and concrete families, with all their daily troubles and struggles, joys and hopes. Living in a family makes it hard for us to feign or lie; we cannot hide behind a mask. If that authenticity is in-spired by love, then the Lord reigns there, with his joy and his peace. The spirituality of family love is made up of thousands of small but real gestures. In that variety of gifts and encounters which deepen communion, God has his dwelling place. This mutual concern “brings together the human and the divine”, for it is filled with the love of God. In the end, marital spirituality is a spirituality of the bond, in which divine love dwells.(Amoris Laetitia #315)

Takura, Zimbabwe

Takura works for CAFOD partner Caritas Harare in Zimbabwe.

Pope Francis warns in Laudato Si’ that our interference with nature is particularly affecting areas in which the poorest people live. This is all too evident for the communities that Takura and Caritas Harare serve in Zimbabwe. As we have caused the climate to warm, drought has dried up people’s water supplies, destroyed their crops and livelihoods, and increased the spread of diseases such as cholera, typhoid, and diarrhoea.

Takura recently visited parishes around England and Wales to talk about how the support of Catholics in this country is enabling people in Zimbabwe to overcome the challenges thrown at them by our exploitation of nature.

“Sixty percent of people in Zimbabwe live in rural areas,” said Takura, “and most of these people rely on farming for their livelihoods. Climate change has resulted in very low rainfall which has greatly affected agriculture. Plants are wilting and dying. Crops are not maturing because of the short rainy seasons. The rainy season normally lasts five months – which is long enough for crops to mature – but now the rains only last two months and there are long dry periods between those two months. This greatly affects crop development and has resulted in a food crisis.

“People don’t have access to clean water. This mainly affects women and girls as culturally it’s their duty to do housework and fetch water. They have

to walk long distances to get it. When they get to the water, the wells are broken down. Women rise before four o’clock in the morning. Girls have to look for water before school. They are tired at school. For women, most of their productive time is lost. For girls, it can lead to school drop-outs.”

Takura explained how the effects of climate change reached beyond just food and water security. “Climate change is also affecting dams. They are supposed to be at full capacity in June, but some are running out and this has affected energy generation. We used to rely on hydroelectric power, but with dams going down, we constantly have challenges.”

In the face of these problems, it’s inspiring that Caritas Harare is working with nature rather than against it to help people lift themselves out of poverty.

“Solar power has greatly improved access to water,” said Takura. “Renewable energy has helped people have greater food security because farmers can irrigate their land and then eat and sell the vegetables they grow.

“It has reduced the burden on women. Solar-powered pumps bring water to the communities themselves and so decrease walking distances and the time taken to fetch water. The water can also be used by schools and clinics. In turn, this increased access to water has improved health.”

“Caritas Harare is promoting drought-resistant, early-maturing plants such as cow peas. They take two months to mature and they don’t require a lot of water. We’re providing seeds with other Church partners and this would help the country more widely if scaled up.

“We’re also promoting the use of biomass from natural waste products to produce energy. Some schools use firewood for cooking and have a spending budget of $1,000 every term for firewood which is a significant amount. Firewood also causes massive deforestation which depletes our environment and adds to climate change. But biomass is going to reduce the cost of energy by councils and schools and the money saved can be channelled to other productive uses.”

“People in Zimbabwe would want to say to people in England and Wales that they need your support to enable them to scale up their productive capacity in agriculture through the use of renewable energy. More resources need to be channelled to supporting renewable energy.”

“I hope that people will be more conscious of their actions towards the environment and become more climate-smart. We need to reduce emissions and the throwaway culture.”Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home

We know that technology based on the use of highly polluting fossil fuels – especially coal, but also oil and, to a lesser degree, gas – needs to be progressively replaced without delay. Until greater progress is made in developing widely accessible sources of renewable energy, it is legitimate to choose the lesser of two evils or to find short-term solutions. But the international community has still not reached adequate agreements about the responsibility for paying the costs of this energy transition.

In recent decades, environmental issues have given rise to considerable public debate and have elicited a variety of committed and generous civic responses. Politics and business have been slow to react in a way commensurate with the urgency of the challenges facing our world.

Although the post-industrial period may well be remembered as one of the most irresponsible in history, nonetheless there is reason to hope that humanity at the dawn of the twenty-first century will be remembered for having generously shouldered its grave responsibilities.

(Laudato Si’ #146)

For poor countries, the priorities must be to eliminate extreme poverty and to promote the social development of their people. At the same time, they need to acknowledge the scandalous level of consumption in some privileged sectors of their population and to combat corruption more effectively. They are likewise bound to develop less polluting forms of energy production, but to do so they require the help of countries which have experienced great growth at the cost of the ongoing pollution of the planet. Taking advantage of abundant solar energy will require the establishment of mechanisms and subsidies which allow developing countries access to technology transfer, technical assistance and financial resources, but in a way which respects their concrete situations, since “the compatibility of [infrastructures] with the context for which they have been designed is not always adequately assessed”. The costs of this would be low, compared to the risks of climate change.In any event, these are primarily ethical decisions, rooted in solidarity between all peoples.(Laudato Si’ #172)

Laísa, Brazil

Laísa is an environmental activist who lives in the state of Pará, one of the most violent states in Brazil. Her sister Maria and brother-in-law José Cláudio were killed in 2011 for campaigning against illegal logging in the Amazon.

Since then, only Laísa remains with her family, defending her land and taking on the cause of her sister and brother-in-law. As a result, she has been facing extremely serious death threats in the aftermath of these murders, and has been living every day in fear of losing her life.

Women have been increasingly threatened and killed by loggers, ranchers and farmers for protecting the environment and fighting for land rights for rural workers in the state of Pará. And the number of women targeted is on the rise.

Dorothy Stang, an American environmental activist, was violently killed in 2005 in Pará, and in September 2013 the rancher who ordered her murder was finally condemned to 30 years imprisonment after a long legal process with high international profile. However the hitman who killed her only served three years of his 27 years’ prison sentence.

Where cases do not receive the same international coverage, women continue to live under death threat with little, delayed or no protection from the Brazilian state or recourse to justice. CAFOD’s partner, CPT (Pastoral Land Commission) is one of the few organisations that campaigns for the

protection and justice for victims of violence related to land rights and environmental protection in Pará.

In May this year, the two hit men hired to kill Laísa’s sister and brother-in-law were convicted with imprisonment,  but the person who allegedly ordered the murders was freed due to insufficient evidence. He and his family have returned to their plot of land, next to where Laísa and her family live.

She says: “You spend your life fighting for justice and when you expect justice to be done, this is what happened. If I could paint days, I would paint that one black as that was a day of real mourning for me. But I thought to myself: “You are not going to run from what is happening”. Even if there is danger, we need to believe that we are going to succeed in the end. But change, in the context of political justice, is very difficult indeed.”

CPT has been supporting Laísa’s case during the murder trial and campaigned for her inclusion in the Federal Programme for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders. They’ve also been providing agricultural training to help Laísa continue the work of the Female Group of Artisanal Workers set up by Laísa’s sister, Maria. The group works to protect the forest and enables women living in the encampment to earn an income.

After Maria’s murder, the group of women disintegrated due to fear for their own lives and the psychological and financial impacts of their association with Maria and Laísa. But with CAFOD’s support the group has restarted, and is now extracting natural oils from native forest trees to produce and sell natural remedies. CPT are also undertaking a project in the region to help families access their land rights and to lobby for socially and environmentally just policies.

Laísa hopes that she has inspired others to stand up against injustice. “If I cannot be physically present in an event, debate or fighting for a cause, I can be in the minds of the people who met me and for whom I made a difference”.

Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home

St Francis helps us to see that an integral ecology calls for openness to categories which transcend the language of mathematics and biology, and take us to the heart of what it is to be human. Just as happens when we fall in love with someone, whenever he would gaze at the sun, the moon or the smallest of animals, he burst into song, drawing all other creatures into his praise. He communed with all creation, even preaching to the flowers, inviting them “to praise the Lord, just as if they were endowed with reason”.His response to the world around him was so much more than intellectual appreciation or economic calculus, for to him each and every creature was a sister united to him by bonds of affection. That is why he felt called to care for all that exists. His disciple Saint Bonaventure tells us that, “from a reflection on the primary source of all things, filled with even more abundant piety, he would call creatures, no matter how small, by the name of ‘brother’ or ‘sister’”. Such a conviction cannot be written off as naive romanticism, for it affects the choices which determine our behaviour. If we approach nature and the environment without this openness to awe and wonder, if we no longer speak the language of fraternity and beauty in our relationship with the world, our attitude will be that of masters, consumers, ruthless exploiters, unable to set limits on their immediate needs.By contrast, if we feel intimately united with all that exists, then sobriety and care will well up spontaneously. The poverty and austerity of Saint Francis were no mere veneer of asceticism, but something much more radical: a refusal to turn reality into an object simply to be used and controlled.(Laudato Si’ #172)