Children in India spread pope’s message on climate change

(Vatican Radio) Around 25 children between the age of 7 and 15 took part in a dance event on New Delhi streets July 12 using colourful umbrellas, unicycles and holding banners, despite the heavy downpour to create awareness for the environment. The event, a part of the Pope4Planet campaign, was organized by the Church-based social organizations Caritas India, Chetnalaya and Nine is Mine.

Caritas in collaboration with Delhi based NGOs –Chetanalaya and NineIsMine and more than 200 other partners in India in solidarity with 164 international member organizations under the aegis of Caritas Internationalis found this as an opportunity to unite actions in preserving the planet earth.

“People tend to ignore the need to preserve the environment and carry on with their lives. I hope they will take into consideration what the pope has said on the issue,” Kalpana Singh, one of the participating students, told ucanews.com.

Deepak, who uses only one name, told ucanews.com, that he was concerned about the increasing number of natural calamities across the world. “We have caused this harm to our mother Earth and we will have to take steps to rectify it. The sooner we start, the better.”

Pope Francis recently released the encyclical Laudato si' (Praise be to you — On Care For Our Common Home). Addressed to every person on the planet, the pope blamed human greed for the critical situation "Our Sister, mother Earth" now finds herself in.

"This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her," he wrote.

More than 250 people signed petitions addressed to world leaders in the U.N. Climate Summit to be held in Paris in November, asking them to take responsibility for climate change and take steps to control it.

“People are just waiting for an opportunity to do something for the environment,” Amrit Sangma, spokesman of Caritas India, told ucanews.com.

Pope Francis’ letter expressing concern about climate change provides them this opportunity, he added.

Sangma also pointed out that the “church's large network should be put to use to spread awareness about this increasing problem and ways to tackle it.”

This was the second public event organized to amplify the key messages of the Papal Encyclical to Indian Audience. The campaign “Pope4Planet” acted on the theme “One human family, caring for creation’ in the run up to Caritas General Assembly in 2019.

It lays major focus on afforestation activities (1 million varied species of trees) to sustain the below 2 degree Celsius temperature of our planet as proposed United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Copenhagen.

Additionally, a research is being initiated to validate the impact of Caritas India’s sustainable agricultural practices (SAP) program across India encompassing 43,000 small farmers in the walk up to COP 21 in December 2015.

Caritas India is also planning a number of “green activities” to encourage afforestation, renewable energy and sustainable agricultural practices, according to Fr. Frederick D'Souza, executive director of Caritas India.

(Source: UCANews)