Most Rev. Gabriel A.A. Mante, Bishop of Jasikan, has called on Catholics to intensively embark on ecological education with the aim of teaching the best practices of planting trees to save the ecology and protect the earth.
He said by extending the education to Schools, Churches, families, in the Media and embarking on catechesis, there would be “firm hope and conviction that we shall not turn our backs on it and allow it to fail.”
Re-launching the Jasikan Diocesan Arbor Week celebration at the Sacred Heart Parish at Chinderi on April 11, Bishop Mante said it was aimed at an ecological conversion and responsible change of direction in relationship with the environment.
Arbor Day, which is observed in many countries, is a day set aside to encourage individuals and groups to plant and care for trees as part of efforts to fight climate change. It is celebrated at the beginning of the raining season.
Bishop Mante said re-launching the Arbor Week in the Diocese was a response to the invitation of Pope Francis to seriously listen, consider and resolve to help repair the damage humanity was causing the earth “our common home”.
He noted that the re-launch was also to share in the hope and conviction of Pope Francis that ‘despite the mistreatment, abuse and laments of Mother Earth, all is not lost and that human being while capable of the worst, are also capable of rising above themselves, choosing again what is good and making a new start.”
He noted that in 1998, the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference launched a tree planting programme in Kumasi, to be carried out annually in the first week of June with the Jasikan Diocese launching it in the last week of May 1998 during the Annual Diocesan pilgrimage to Tokuroano.
The Bishop lamented that the programme in the Diocese suffered the same fate as the national one, because the success or failure of the national programme depended on those of the Diocesan ones.
He stated that “Our re-launch of the Arbor Week, even if it has not yet affected this part of Ghana is our unqualified admission of the truth that we have destroyed extensive areas of the land of Ghana through mining, whether legal or illegal.”
He noted that Ghanaians were needlessly causing costly damage to the major rivers and other water bodies in the country, stressing that “we are poorly informed and unaware of the damage to our health and untimely deaths due to the use of dangerous chemicals like mercury and cyanide.
Dilating on Pope Francis’ Encyclical Laudato Si, Bishop Mante said its name was taken from the invocation of the Canticles of creatures by St. Francis of Assisi: Laudato Si “Praise be to you, my Lord through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and govern us, and who produces various fruits with coloured flowers and herbs.”
The Canticle, he said, called to mind that the earth, our common home, “is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us”.
Bishop Mante recalled the Pope’s concern that the destruction of forests could not be ignored and this has brought Organisations and Institutions to discuss how to protect the environment.
To commemorate the re-launching, the Priests, Religious and lay faithful joined the Bishop to plant trees, a sign of encouragement to others to also embark on tree planting in their various communities.
The Bishop prayed that in the next five years, the communities in the Diocese would become a forest hence avoid suffering from the climate change and global warming.
The ceremony was held during the Chrism Mass of the Diocese, attended by all the Priests and Religious in the Diocese and some lay faithful from the 15 Parishes and their Outstations.
Rev. Msgr. Daniel Buor, Diocesan Pastoral Co-ordinator, in a message, said the re-launch was the modest contribution of the Diocese to the national afforestation programme, which aims at reducing the pace at which forests were being destroyed.
He said the revival of the programme had started with the planting of 50,000 trees from 2017 to 2022, hoping that this would encourage communities to donate portions of lands for the development of green areas, woodlots, parks and gardens.
Msgr. Buor who is the Co-ordinator of the tree planting programme, said Schools were also being encouraged to develop their campuses by including tree planting in their extracurricular activities
In an interview with some selected faithful, they noted that the re-launch would help them appreciate and understand the importance of a clean and sound environment.
