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23/08/2019

Tailor-made Manifesto For the 21st Century - Laudato Si

Lord John McFall, Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords writes this week's Justice and Peace Scotland blog reflecting on the importance of Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Si as the way ahead in addressing the great global challenges of our time.

Fifty years ago the Apollo 8 astronauts were overcome by their view of the earth’s ‘singular beauty, isolation and fragility’. Today that sense of fragility has taken on a new meaning as we hold the future of the planet in our hands.

Conservative projections indicate that the world is on course to become at least 3 degrees hotter by the end of this century than in pre-industrial times. We have not seen a 3 degrees rise for around 3 million years and 4 or 5 degrees for tens of millions of years. Such a temperature rise would transform the relationship between human beings and the planet. Most of Southern Europe would look like the Sahara desert, with Bangladesh and Florida largely submerged. Hundreds of millions of people could be on the move, with severe conflict a certain outcome. The World Bank estimates there could be upwards of 140 million refugees by 2050 – more than 100 times Europe’s Syrian crisis.

The Australian National Centre for Climate Restoration says that human civilisation as we know it may have already entered its last decades. We are burning 80% more coal than we did at the turn of the millennium - proof that globally we are not doing enough.

So what more can governments, politicians and society do?

In a recent House of Lords lecture, the Astronomer General, Lord Rees of Ludlow, emphasised that no political decision is ever purely scientific. It involves economics, ethics and politics. So politicians need to work with as many groups as possible in the global race to save the planet. This is where the Church and, in particular, Laudato Si’, enter centre stage.

As a ‘practicing but unbelieving Anglican’, Lord Rees was encouraged by Pope Francis to contribute to the encyclical. He praised the pope for his global leadership and said: ‘There is no gainsaying the Church’s global reach, its long-term vision and concern for the world’s poor.’

Jeffrey Sachs, described by Time magazine as ‘the world’s best known economist’, is an unabashed Pope Francis fan. He says that Francis offers the most compelling leadership on the planet, warning about economic and environmental degradation and projecting a compelling vision in a world threatened with extinction. He argues that Catholic Social Teaching, from the Gospels to Laudato Si’, puts the question of economics into a moral framework.

Laudato Si’ is a radical call to conversion. It advocates ‘ecological conversion’ in which our encounter with Jesus is realised as a ‘vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork’. In a recent interview, Pope Francis said that it is not a green encyclical but a social encyclical based on a ‘green’ reality, the custody of creation.

Over the years, I have seen the good work done by Justice and Peace groups in schools and communities throughout the country. Laudato Si’ strikes me as being a tailor-made manifesto for Justice and Peace groups in the 21st century. With possible catastrophe facing humanity in the coming decades, there is no more relevant social teaching than Laudato Sí, which addresses not just a single issue, but the great global challenges of our time.

Lord John McFall

On Saturday 21st September 2019 Justice and Peace Scotland are holding a conference on the environment in Glasgow - Laudato Si - Care For Our Common Home, to find out more and to book a place at the conference click here https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/laudato-si-care-for-our-common-home-tickets-59884089925

16/08/2019

Development Education For All Ages

Julius Nyerere once said: "Take every penny you have set aside for aid for Tanzania and spend it in the UK, explaining to people the facts and causes of poverty.” In this week’s blog, Mark Booker, development officer for SCIAF, echoes the importance of the Tanzanian peace activist’s words.

Development education is vital in raising awareness and increasing understanding of how global issues affect our everyday lives. We make no apologies at SCIAF for the time, effort and resources that go into educating not only our young people in schools but the wider Catholic community too.

I think it is imperative that as individuals, and as a community, we are informed about global issues such as poverty, injustice, gender equality, climate change, human rights and more. We can’t afford to continue living in a world where people are ignorant and narrow-minded. It’s important to understand that Development Education is not about telling people the right answer. Rather it is about promoting and facilitating critical thinking about some of these vital issues. It should challenge global perceptions and lead us to take action for a fairer world.

I count it a privilege and also a huge responsibility, in my role as a Development Education Officer at SCIAF, to be part of delivering a significant part of the Bishops’ mandate - that of educating the Catholic Community in areas of global justice and international development.

The beauty of development education and its promotion of justice is that it complements Catholic Social Teaching so well. I believe that development education can help us achieve, in part, what the “Lord requires” when in Micah 6:8 it says “To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God”. I feel that a personal faith in God only enhances the actions we may take when we’re made more globally aware through development education.

SCIAF’s support in this area takes different forms, from school workshops and lessons (sometimes led by our amazing volunteers) to the provision of resources that are linked to the Curriculum for Excellence and the Catholic RE curriculum, ‘This is our Faith’.

In many ways, young people and schools are far more knowledgeable than the rest of society about the world we live in and that’s because there is dedicated time given over to learning. One of the challenges for my colleague Elaine, and I, is to look at how we can increase the number of workshops in parishes and produce resources that parishes will see as a valuable part of their faith formation. Your feedback and partnership with this venture is greatly appreciated and I welcome your thoughts.

You may think that the Bible has nothing to say about development education as it might be considered a more modern concept, but, the Bible does talk about educating and training, and of wisdom’s worth being far more important than gold. In the book of Proverbs 22:6 it says, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when they are old they will not depart from it”.

While this verse is not specifically about development education, it is certainly my hope that the work we do in schools to empower young people, and to raise awareness of global issues in their lives, will be long-lasting and impact their actions forever.

Mark Booker, Senior Development Education Officer - SCIAF

09/08/2019

Food, Glorious Food – or is it?

Food, fellowship, human rights and care for creation, they are all connected. This week in our blog Grace Buckley tells us why she will never look at food the same way again.

I have to say that I am not a foodie, and cooking is not one of my favourite things, but this year, food has been a central issue in many situations I have been involved in.

There’s food as a necessity for life. I don’t have to worry where my next meal is coming from, but for so many people in our country, never mind our world, this is a real concern.

They may have to skip a meal to ensure their children eat; or make the choice between heating and eating; or they may have to eat unhealthily because this is cheaper. The causes are many: benefit delays or sanctions, low wages or zero-hours contracts to name a few, and the problem is increasing in this, one of the richest countries in the world.

In addition to practical steps such as community meals and foodbanks, faith and civil society organisations in Scotland are now challenging this situation through, for example, the Food Justice Declaration of the Interfaith Food Justice Network and the Campaign for a Good Food Nation, which organised responses to the Scottish government’s consultation on its proposals for a Good Food Nation Bill. The bottom line of these challenges is that food – adequate, nourishing and accessible – should be a human right enshrined in legislation.

Then there is food as a means of bringing people together. Christians should recognise the importance of this through the examples of table fellowship in the Gospels. This was brought to life for me when I arranged for our parish to host the Glasgow Weekend Club in our hall and experienced first hand how preparing and sharing a meal brought a very diverse group of people together and made it easier for them to talk. I experienced a similar coming together when I was invited to an Iftaar meal at Ramadan and learned so much in the context of a very welcoming community.

The same idea is behind the One Big Picnic in Glasgow’s George Square where groups from both faith and non-faith communities work together to offer free food to anyone coming to the event: homeless, refugees, tourists and ‘ordinary’ Glaswegians. Bonds were created both in the preparation for the day and in the serving of the food.

Then there is the negative side of food: its production, processing and disposal, which we are only beginning to think about. Modern methods of food production can involve land theft, land or water degradation, ill treatment of animals, environmental pollution and even human slavery. Its processing can lead to carbon emissions and waste.

At the recent Glasgow Food Summit, a session was devoted to the environmental impact of food and one shocking statistic emerged that in Scotland alone, food waste amounts to one million tonnes a year and contributes 22% of our carbon emissions. We have to find a solution.

I for one can never look at food again in the same casual way. As someone at that summit said, we have forgotten how to treat food (and its producers) with respect.

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