Kerala bishops promote environmental protection as expression of faith

August 11, 2012: Environmental protection is "an expression of faith in God," said the bishops of the Southern Indian state of Kerala. "Our faith calls for protecting the creation of God and adopting our lifestyle accordingly," the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council said in a statement after its Friday meeting attended by 36 bishops.
"In the context of the energy crisis and problems of waste management in Kerala, the church has the duty and responsibility to propagate use of solar energy and eco-friendly waste management," the statement said.
Authorities are considering instituting rotating power outages in Kerala as much of the state has experienced significantly less rainfall than normal for months, leaving a network of hydroelectric power dams almost dry. Waste management also remains a major problem in the state where population density is more than twice the national average.
"It's not enough that we preach on environmental protection. We are setting examples to others by using solar energy in the bishops houses and other institutions," Archbishop Andrews Thazhath of Trichur, KCBC president, told Catholic News Service. In June, the bishops council adopted the "Towards Green Meadows" policy in an effort to involve the church in wide-ranging conservation activities. The policy listed several measures for church-run institutions to follow including the promotion of eco-spirituality, nature resource conservation and waste management.