Pope encyclical recognizes CBCP ‘green’ efforts

• Source: http://www.mb.com.ph/pope-encyclical-recognizes-cbcp-green-efforts/
• Saturday, June 20, 2015

By Leslie Ann Aquino

The head of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) believes Pope Francis’ mention of their pastoral letter in his latest encyclical on the environment is a recognition of their pastoral efforts on ecological stewardship.

“It is a recognition of the pastoral efforts of the Phlippine bishops for almost two decades now in the area of ecological stewardship,” Lingayen Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas, president of the CBCP, said in an interview.

“It is an affirmation that we in the Philippines are in the right direction in our teaching that creation is a gift that must be cared for,” he added.

In his encyclical Laudato Si, mi Signore (Praise be to you, my Lord), the pontiff cited the CBCP pastoral letter “What Is Happening to Our Beautiful Land?” when he talked about the destruction of oceans.

“Who turned the wonderworld of the seas into underwater cemeteries bereft of color and life?” the Holy Father quoted the CBCP letter that was released in January 1988.

But Villegas said this is not the first time the pontiff cited CBCP in church documents.

He said Pope Francis also cited the Filipino bishops in his apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel).

Earlier, Villegas said the Pope’s encyclical on the environment offers moral guidance and address humanity’s indifference to the earth.

The CBCP said the letter provides perspectives on the need for a better approach to ecological problems and its effects on the poor.

An encyclical is a papal letter to all bishops of the Roman Catholic Church.