Abuja, 29 August, 2023 / 11:22 am (ACI Africa).
The Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja in Nigeria has launched a campaign to plant thousands of trees aimed at fostering “ecological conversion”, the Local Ordinary has said.
In his speech during the launch of the Abuja Archdiocesan Tree Planting Campaign at Maryland Passo Gwagwalada Abuja on August 25, Archbishop Ignatius Ayau Kaigama said that the initiative was part of the implementation of Pope Francis’ May 2015 Encyclical on Care for Our Common Home, Laudato Si’.
“Abuja Archdiocese will be planning 20,000 trees yearly for the next five years as a way of protecting the environment in line with the Commitment of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) to implement the Holy Father Pope Francis Encyclical, Laudato Si’, Care for our Common Home,” Archbishop Kaigama said.
He added, “What we are doing here today is to promote ecological conversion and Pope Francis’s Encyclical Letter, Laudato Si’, calling on the world to treat the environment more fairly as we carry out our activities as human beings; if you go round our environment, you will see a lot of plastic waste and other forms of environmental pollution that has affected our environment.”
The Nigerian Catholic Archbishop commended members of CBCN for initiating the 5 million tree planting project in Nigeria “to ensure the prevention of Climate Change, global warming and reforestation of the country.”
