By Clare Westwood
PLENTONG, JOHOR — All nine Malaysian Arch/Bishops today signed pledges to make their dioceses ecological dioceses, at the Catholic Bishops Conference in MAJODI Centre, Plentong, Johore.
The pledge is worded as follows: “The Roman Catholic Arch/Diocese of (name), Malaysia, hereby declares its pledge to be an Ecological Diocese in perpetuity, living out a deep ecological spirituality and advancing ecological justice and resilience for all creation, by pursuing decarbonised pathways and the building of community and Earth resilience, according to the Ecological Diocese Protocols appended to this pledge, to the best of its ability and creativity within local circumstances.”
In his address to his fellow bishops, Bishop Joseph Hii, President of the Episcopal Commission for Creation Justice of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei (ECCJ-MSB), said that this event was particularly meaningful in line with the ECCJ-MSB’s Protec Our Earth, Protect Our Children (PROTEC) Campaign which was launched in 2020 nation-wide and carried a new theme each year.
The current year’s theme for PROTEC was to ‘Stop Plastic Pollution’ and the new theme for Year 4 (1 September 2023 to 31 August 2024) would be ‘Cut Fuel Consumption’ which is in line with the ECCJ-MSB’s current ‘Decarbonising Malaysia Project’, launched this year, given the worsening of the climate crisis.
Dr Maria Lee, Head of the MAJODI Creation Justice Commission, who was present at the ceremony, shared that everyone in the ECCJ-MSB was so proud of our Church leaders i.e., the Bishops, in signing this pledge. It showed that the Catholic Church was taking the call of Pope Francis in Laudato Si’ (LS) to “save mankind from self-destruction” (LS#79) seriously.
She also stressed on the fact that the climate crisis was a health crisis and hoped that Catholic doctors would be leaders in taking up this public health issue. She further called upon the Church to dedicate one Prayer of the Faithful at every mass to the climate emergency, and for every commission/ministry to incorporate climate action in its work.
The pledge was signed in the form of a certificate with several appendices listing out the ecological diocese protocols in detail with accompanying Ecological Parish Protocols, self-monitoring forms and other supporting documents to help each diocese and parish make the transition towards becoming fully ecological.
Each bishop was also given a pen drive filled with resources produced by the ECCJ-MSB members over the years to support ecological conversion and transformation (flyers, bookmarks, videos, etc.) at the diocesan and parish levels. These resources were also shared with Cardinal William Goh of Singapore and Rev Fr Robert Leong of Brunei.
The pledges made by all the bishops of Malaysia truly represent a milestone for the Roman Catholic Church in Malaysia, showing it is united in taking leadership and accountability, and is a clarion call for all the Catholic faithful to respond to the global emergency with urgency. It is timely as well, given that we are in our seventh year since Laudato Si’ was released with Pope Francis repeatedly reminding us all to “hear the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor (LS#49)”.
Since the ECCJ-MSB restructured itself with its new name in 2017, the Commission has grown from strength to strength with all dioceses coming on board with active Creation Justice Commissions. It is hoped that now that all the bishops have signed the pledges, that every parish in every diocese in Malaysia will set up a Creation Justice Ministry dedicated to the mission of advancing creation justice and resilience for all creation, both human and in nature.
Since the UN declared a (Climate) Code Red situation in 2022, with all indications that we will hit 1.5oC of warming in the next decade at current emission rates, there is no time to lose for the sake of current and future generations and our beloved Common Home.
Editor’s note: The writer Clare Westwood is the Regional Director, ECCJ-MSB
