Seasons of Creation 2021: Fourth Week. Comboni missionaries’ experience in Kinshasa

SEE

Comboni missionaries’ experience: Laudato si’ Missionary Centre
Kinshasa, R.D. Congo

Together to Care for Our Common Home

With a view to strengthening socio-environmental pastoral care in Congo, the Comboni Missionaries have launched the Laudato si' Missionary Centre (LSMC) in Kinshasa. The Centre is the result of joint reflection between a group of Comboni Missionaries and lay people who have been engaged in social pastoral work for years to follow up on the resolutions of the General Chapter of 2015 and in response to the fundamental concerns raised by Pope Francis in his encyclical Laudato si' (On the care of our common home). The aim of the Centre is to promote activities to protect the environment and safeguard creation through animation, formation and research; as well as the promotion of ecological citizenship, justice and peace.

The Centre's activities revolve around the dissemination of the encyclical Laudato si'; the animation and formation of Small Christian Commmunities, youth and women to strengthen their capacities for environmental protection; the promotion and execution of studies/research on environmental protection; and micro-projects to safeguard Creation, and to promote sustainable development and ecological citizenship. These activities reach out to the general public (families, congregations, farmers), social and health institutions (schools, universities, churches, sports and training centres), commercial businesses (markets, restaurants, workshops and various other economic activities), industrial enterprises (oil companies, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries, plastic packaging factories, agricultural processing industries), State and private administration, and civil society.

In making its contribution to the care of our common home, the Centre works in synergy with church, state and civil society bodies already engaged in this field. This is how it has developed its partnership with the Episcopal Commission for Natural Resources (CERN), the Diocesan Pastoral Centre Lindonge, Civil Society, the NGO Counterpart International, the Paediatric Nephrology Service of the University Clinics of Kinshasa.

Among the outreach activities that the Centre has managed to organise so far, here are the most important ones:

-    Roundtable on the theme "Together for the care of our common home", articulating the vision of the Centre (August 2018). This symposium was also a special opportunity for church ministers, civil society organisations, public and private administrations in charge of sustainable environmental management to meet on the need to preserve life and give hope to future generations.

-    The training of the pastoral agents of our Saint Jean Paul II Parish on the message of the Encyclical Laudato si'.

-    The animation and conscientization of the young people of our parish on the environmental issues and the vision of Laudato si'.

-    The organisation in 2019 of activities for the month of March, dedicated to women, on the role they are called to play in safeguarding creation and promoting ecological citizenship.

-    Symposium on "Pastoral care and ecological citizenship: the challenge of education for integral ecology recommended by the encyclical Laudato si'" (2019).

-    The organisation of activities in March 2020 on "The role of women as actors in protection and ecological citizenship in a perspective of equal opportunities and sharing of responsibilities".

-    The organisation for the Saint Jean-Paul II parish community of an awareness-raising evening on Covid-19.

-    The organisation of activities in March 2021 on "Women's leadership and care for the common home in the context of Covid-19".

The Centre works in synergy with other organisations involved in caring for our common home and is sometimes invited to participate in activities they promote, for example:

-    In May 2021, we participated in the Conference closing the Laudato si' Year and launching ecological pastoral care in the Archdiocese of Kinshasa, organised by the Justice and Peace Commission.

-    From 21^st to 24^th June 2021: training organised by the Episcopal Conference, through the Episcopal Commission for Natural Resources (CERN), for the bishops of Congo in the field of ecology so that each one can see how to start up ecological pastoral work in his diocese.

Fr. Emmanuel Kasika, MCCJ, Vice-Director of the Center

DISCERN

Insights for a biblical-ecological reflection on the readings of Sunday 26 September

PRAYING FOR OUR HOME PLANET & ITS PEOPLE
Esther 7: 1-6, 9-10; 9: 20-22; Psalm 124: 1-8; James 5: 13-20; Marc 9: 38-50

=          There is a danger that responses to climate injustice and environmental chaos are only about activism: campaigns and advocacy. Today’s readings encourage us to turn to God in prayer in times of crisis, recognising that activism needs deep foundations in a spirituality that sustains and renews us.

=          James 5:13 states: “Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray.” The passage continues, “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” (5:16b) and gives the example of Elijah praying for no rain and then praying for rain which led to fruitful harvests (5:17-18). Do we pray about the Climate crisis? Do we pray for God’s mercy for people and places suffering devastating and catastrophic drought or flood, storms or erosion? Do we also pray for the political processes, for COP26 in Glasgow in November 2021, and for God’s Spirit to change the hearts of world leaders, to give them compassion and embolden them to take unpopular but necessary decisions?

=          The book of Esther is a story of a woman whom God used to bring justice and deliverance at the heart of the political process, at great personal risk. Can we intercede for those today who are strategically placed to speak truth to power, to challenge self-interest, and to advocate for climate victims and nature herself?

=          Mark 9:42ff uses strong language to warn of the danger of causing children and young people to stumble. A recent UK survey claimed 90% of young Christians see the climate as today’s most pressing and urgent issue, and yet 90% also say their churches are not doing enough on climate change. If churches are slow to pray, speak and act on the climate emergency, this passage suggests God will judge us harshly for causing young people to stumble in their faith.Our response needs to be in lament and repentance, in prayer and fasting, and in speaking out and acting decisively.

ACT

Participate as a community in the Laudato si' Action Platform, the path proposed by Pope Francis and the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, to achieve sustainability in terms of integral ecology by 2030.

To join the Laudato si' Platform, click here.