In January 2018, the Bishops’ conference of Latin America and the Caribbean (CELAM) has released a pastoral letter entitled “Missionary Disciples Custodians of the Common Home, Discernment in Light of Laudato si”, that calls for care of creation in response to the damaging consequences of the over-exploitation of the Earth’s natural resources.
“The Latin American bishops, in communion with Pope Francis, want to use this Pastoral Letter to enter into dialogue with all people about our common home and especially about the way we are shaping the future of the planet, which implies that together we can seek paths of liberation that lead to true wisdom and to the approach of comprehensive solutions”.
The letter emphasizes that land, water and climate are common goods and denounces the privatization of the Earth’s riches. It questions the actual benefits of extractivism, as it feeds into a consumerism that is destroying the planet and is at the expense of the poorest countries, which contribute the least to climate change yet are suffering its worst impacts.
The bishops of CELAM are very clear when they define what extractivism is: By “extractivism” we understand an unbridled tendency of the economic system to convert the goods of nature into capital. The action of “extracting” the greatest amount of materials in the shortest possible time, converting them into raw materials and inputs that industry will use, that will then be transformed into products and services that others will market, society Will consume and then nature itself will receive in the form of polluting waste—that is the consumerist loop that is being generated at ever greater speed and ever greater risk.
Although the bishops place special responsibility on States and corporations in mitigating the impacts of climate change and making a just transition to economies that are not dependent on fossil fuels, it also calls for individuals themselves to undergo an ecological conversion where we reconnect to the life that Mother Earth provides.
“We forget that we ourselves are earth (see Gen 2:7 and LS 2). Our very bodies are made up of her elements, we breathe her air and we receive life and refreshment from her waters.”
As Christians, the bishops remind us, we have a mission to care for the Earth. We must be leaders in our own communities in rejecting the “throwaway culture” that places profit and materialism before the dignity of others, even that of Mother Earth. Furthermore, we must stand by side by side with those who defend the land and water, because their actions are for the benefit of all, most importantly for future generations who will walk the Earth after us.
“It is also necessary to take care of the caretakers of the common home, because they are often threatened, mistreated, repressed and imprisoned for announcing the Good News of the Kingdom and denouncing the “gods of power and money”. There are already many martyrs who have given their lives in Latin America in the struggle for the defense of Life. Their blood is the seed of freedom and hope.”