Myanmar Church’s tree-planting drive in the spirit of “Laudato Si”
Original article by Robin Gomes at Vatican News
Cardinal Charles Bo, the Archbishop of Yangon, joined Catholic social workers and young people on July 6 to plant trees in a government-reserved forest area on the outskirts of Myanmar’s commercial city.
More than 200 Catholic Church workers and young people joined in a tree-planting event last week in Myanmar, in a show of responsibility for protecting the environment in the spirit of the Pope Francis Encyclical, “Laudato Sii”.
Cardinal Charles Bo, the Archbishop of Yangon joined Catholic social workers and young people on July 6 to plant trees in a government-reserved forest area on the outskirts of Myanmar’s commercial city.
The cardinal and chief minister of Yangon Division, Phyo Min Thein, joined more than 200 participants planted nearly 2,000 trees at Taikkyi township.
Francis’ green effect
Karuna or Caritas Myanmar, the Catholic Church’s social arm, has been actively involved in a tree-planting campaign since June 18, which marked the fourth anniversary of Pope Francis’s encyclical on the “Care for Our Common Home”.
Among other issues, the encyclical calls for responsible and swift action on climate change.
Since 2018, the entire Caritas Myanmar network has been working to organize the campaign in its 16 dioceses across the country.
Shared responsibility
Its aim is to motivate different stakeholders to shoulder the responsibility to eliminate environmental destruction and injustices connected to global climate change.
Commenting on Saturday’s event, Father Joseph Mg Win, director of Yangon’s Karuna mission said that the government had provided the saplings and reserved an area to plant the trees and the Church would take responsibility for caring for them for the next two years.
Father Mg said his Karuna Yangon has been planting trees since 2017 and had also planted thousands of nursery plants at several villages in Bago Division.