OCEANIA/PAPUA NEW GUINEA - Celebrating the Time of Creation with the awareness that when our world is sick, we also get sick

Friday, 4 September 2020

Port Moresby (Agenzia Fides) - Every year from 1 September to 4 October the Christian family in the world gathers to celebrate the protection of our common home. "We rejoice in this Time of Creation which offers us the opportunity to pray, reflect, stop and act in favor of our common home", writes Fr. Ambrose Pereira SDB, Director of the Communications Office of the Bishops' Conference of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. During the Time of Creation, 2.2 billion Christians around the world will come together to pray and act for our common home.
"This year - he continues - the stress, tension and the pressures of the pandemic make the Time of Creation take on a new dimension. We are all aware that our well-being is closely connected with the well-being of God's creation. Each of us realizes that when our world is sick we also get sick. During this pandemic, nature has had some time to recover and we have realized that we need to think of new and sustainable ways to give the Earth the rest it needs".
Among the testimonies regarding this event, Salesian Fr. Savio Silveira, director and founder of the Don Bosco Green Alliance, offered some suggestions inspired by prayer and action to be implemented during this time. Among these, the priest invites us to pray daily a 'prayer for our land' of Pope Francis, found in Laudato Sì; integrate the theme of Creation into Sunday liturgies; organize a meditation session to appreciate creation and its importance.
For each week of the Time of Creation, Fr. Silverio also proposes to spend time outdoors, learn about local biodiversity, improve creation by organizing campaigns for tree planting, restoring gardens and organizing ecological days in view of the World Clean Up Day which will be celebrated on September 19th.
The Salesian, recalling the words of Pope Benedict XVI on the occasion of the XLIII International Day of Peace 2010, "If you want to cultivate peace, protect creation" - urges us all to commit ourselves to protect creation by organizing online campaigns to highlight local threats to nature.
The Don Bosco Green Alliance is a global initiative founded in 2018 and inspired by Laudato Sì. It is an international group of young people who work together to contribute to global environmental initiatives, reflections and policies. (AP/AP) (Agenzia Fides, 4/9/2020)


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