NAIROBI (OSV News): When Pope Francis released his apostolic exhortation, Laudate Deum [Praise God] was released on October 4, its message echoed loudly across Africa, where millions of ordinary people are victims of the global climate crisis.
“This is real,” Father Gerard Matolo, a priest in the newly erected Diocese of Wote, said, pointing out, “My congregants often tell me how the rains in the 1980s used to be enough to sustain a harvest, but now we are going year after year without any due to poor rains.”
Father Matolo said, “We have to give food aid to people who often come to our parish offices. It’s usually for a few and most needy. They are also in serious need of water,” adding, “There is some borehole water, but it has too much fluoride. That’s why most children in my parish have brown teeth,” a condition called fluorosis, which is caused by overexposure to fluoride.
Climate change “is a global social issue and one intimately related to the dignity of human life,” Laudate Deum said, adding that “the African bishops stated that climate change makes manifest “a tragic and striking example of structural sin.”
My congregants often tell me how the rains in the 1980s used to be enough to sustain a harvest, but now we are going year after year without any due to poor rains.
Father Matolo
The situation could really be called “tragic” in the Horn of Africa, the region that is still recovering from a severe drought—the worst in 40 years—that continued to unfold in 2023. Until the arrival of the rains, the drought had displaced an estimated one million people and left millions of others on the brink of famine.
Scientists blamed the situation on rising temperatures, which disrupted weather patterns in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia, resulting in a fifth consecutive rain season failure.
On September 10, the opposite unfolded in Libya, where devastating floods were triggered by the storm Daniel, killing thousands of people.
The African bishops celebrated and welcomed Pope Francis’ new climate exhortation “that illustrates the global social issues of climate change and echoes the obvious nature of climate change impacts.” They referred in particular to the 13th point of the exhortation: “It is not possible to conceal the correlation between these global climate phenomena and the accelerated increase in greenhouse gas emissions.”
They said, “We must move beyond the mentality of appearing to be concerned but not having the courage needed to produce substantial changes.” the African bishops said.
Laudate Deum, stresses that time is running out and that irreversible damages to the planet have already occurred.
