Maputo, 23 May, 2025 / 9:11 pm (ACI Africa).
The Apostolic Administrator of Mozambique’s Catholic Diocese of Quelimane has called on Christians to embrace environmental responsibility as a vital part of their faith and a way of securing the future.
In his homily during a Thanksgiving Eucharistic celebration to mark the 10th anniversary of the late Pope Francis’ 24 May 2015 Encyclical Letter on care for our common home, Laudato Si’, Fr. Pietro Tosato emphasized that “commitment to the environment is also a commitment to life.”
“Creation is a gift from God. The world was not made by us; we received it as an inheritance, and we must pass it on with gratitude and care,” Fr. Tosato said during the Thursday, May 22 event that was held at the Immaculate Conception Parish of Quelimane Diocese.
He lamented, “We have been living as if resources were infinite, as if the earth could endure everything, when in fact it cries out for care. Caring for nature is protecting the future of our children and grandchildren.”
The Italian-born member of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin (OFM Cap.) used the example of charcoal production to explain the negative consequences of environmental neglect. He posed, “How many trees are cut down, but almost none are replanted? The question is simple but profound.”
