New Agenda for Aparecida

The agenda for the V CELAM Conference in Aparecida revolves around the following of Jesus, so that all may have life. The solemn presence of the Pope raises it to the highest form. However in recent months, there have been new developments that could not be included in the preparatory texts. These developments are modifying societies' collective consciousness, and represent a challenge to all Humanity. They will also affect the universal and continental Church. They are of such gravity, that they should change the bishops' agenda in Aparecida.

Since February we have learned with 90% certainty that global warming is a consequence of human ways of production and consumption, and that it is an irreversible fact. Until now, the world strategy has been to conserve and care for the Earth with understanding, compassion and love. We were not to exceed the limit because doing so would change the entire status of the planet. But that limit has been surpassed: we are already within a global warming range of between 1’4 up to 6 degrees Celsius, which will probably stabilize at 3 degrees. The consequences of this rupture will be disastrous: there will be a major thawing and the sea will rise significantly, flooding the cities close to the oceans, where 60% of Humanity lives. Climates will be tremendously affected, great droughts will occur in certain regions, and unimaginable floods in others, destroying in both cases the harvest necessary for human and animal nourishment. Bioversity will be catastrophically affected, causing the extinction of thousands of species, breaking the always fragile equilibrium of the ecosystems. Millions of persons will run the risk of disappearing from the face of the Earth, and whole regions will become inhospitable for human habitation (great parts of Brazil among those regions.)

These data are not imagined.  They are empirical, gathered by thousands of scientists spread over the 130 countries that are part of the UN organ known as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Changes, IPCC. And two strategies are offered as urgent: to adapt to the new situation, and to lessen its harmful effects.

This changes priorities: the question is now not so much one of sustainable development, as of the continuity of the Earth and of Humanity. The new central issue can no longer be how to evangelize the Latin American Church, and how to avoid the flight of Catholics to other Pentecostal and popular Churches, but to what degree will the Churches, with the spiritual capital they posses, help the Earth to be benevolent to all manifestations of life, and to what degree will they guarantee a common future for all Humanity.

The bishops, as pastors, should be conscious of the new responsibility they must assume: that of awakening the conscience of the faithful and reeducating them to Humanity's new situation. Bishops will be present from the whole Amazon area, covering parts of nine Latin-American countries.  We know that these forests, together, are the principal factor in the equilibrium of the climatic system of the Earth, of the regime of the winds, and of the rains. The Church, heir to The One who said: « I have come to bring life, and abundant life », must be the leader in realizing responsible actions. She has the vocation to be the guardian of life and to safeguard all creation. Aparecida must not fail in the face of this challenge, on pain of not fulfilling her sacred mission.


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