In a bid to put religious perspective in the global environmental conservation and preservation action, the Roman Catholic Church in Cebu is set to hold a convention on climate emergency.
According to a Philippine National Agency report, Archbishop Jose Palma announced on Wednesday that the Cebu Archdiocesan Commission on Environmental Concerns (CACEC) will take an active part in the convention to be held in a hotel in Barangay Lahug on January 31 to February 1, 2020.
“In the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), much of our gatherings have focused on what we can do to respond to the many forms of degradation and ways our environment has been destroyed,” Palma was quoted as saying in the report.
Moreover, he also commented that the collaborative effort of various stakeholders to help the archdiocese come up with the first Cebu Archdiocesan Convention on Climate Emergency aims to become a venue for discussion of the church’s ecological actions.
CACEC Chairman Fr. Murphy Sarsonas said the church has 13 ecological actions but the convention will tackle five which are considered “closer to Cebu.”
The Church in Cebu is also set to launch on the second day of the convention the Cebu Climate Emergency Center.
According to a statement furnished to the media, the first archdiocesan conference on climate emergency will be attended by approximately 500 members of the clergy and lay leaders from 160 parishes in the province.
“We have to stop using fossil fuels because it’s not just their use that is damaging to the human health but the mining operations to dig them out of the ground are also destructive to the environment,” Sarsonas stated.
Representatives from the academe, business sector, civil society groups, and local government units also signified their intention to attend the gathering.
