by Shafique Khokhar

Catholic groups organise a global march against climate change on 1 December in Pakistan’s southern metropolis to raise awareness among ordinary Pakistanis, starting with Christians, about the issues affecting the environment as Pope Francis had requested. For vicar general, man threatens to destroy "this wonderful universe."

Karachi (AsiaNews) – Caritas Pakistan, together with the National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) of the Catholic Church of Pakistan, the Karachi NCJP chapter and the Justice and Peace Commission of the Major Religious Superiors Leadership Conference, organised a Global March for Climate in Karachi, the capital of the southern Pakistani province of Sindh, last Monday, 1 December, starting off from St George’s Catholic Church in Drigh Road.

With an eye on the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 21) currently underway in Paris until 11 December, which the pontiff mentioned on his way home from an apostolic trip to Africa, the rally sought to mobilise people against climate change in order to build a future in which ecology and the environment take centre stage in a world currently dominated by consumerism and materialism.

As Pope Francis put it in his encyclical Laudato si’, climate change is a global problem with serious repercussions for the environment, economy, politics and redistribution of goods. In view of this, the Karachi march organisers see themselves as part of the Laudato si’ in action. Their goal was to mobilise Karachi Catholics in solidarity with the global Catholic movement working on climate change and caring for the earth.

The future of the planet is presently at the centre of discussions in Paris and the decisions world leaders take there are critical not only for the present generation, but also for those that follow. Thus, it is essential to come up with a comprehensive view of the issue and start to protect creation.

For Mansha Noor, executive secretary of Caritas Karachi, who spoke with AsiaNews, the rally was meant as a show of solidarity towards the Catholic movement on climate. The Global March, he explained, is an "opportunity to mobilise and highlight the efforts made so far.” In his view, “People are central to finding solutions to the climate problem”.

Activist and NCJP Karachi regional coordinator Rasheed Gill agrees. For him, “not enough attention has been devoted to creation,” and the “closely tied problems” have not been understood.

Catholics too, he added, should become personally involved in solving the environmental crisis because "it is our social and spiritual responsibility."

For Fr Saleh Deigo, the vicar general of the Archdiocese of Karachi, creation is the product of God’s work. Sadly, "human beings are destroying this wonderful universe by polluting the environment in many different ways."

Citing Pope Francis, who called on everyone to take care of creation, he said that each of us should do our part to save the earth and humanity itself.

In order to achieve this, the clergyman calls for more tree planting, less waste in energy use, and less polluting vehicles.

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