By Benedict Tang
SINGAPORE(SE): As smoke from Indonesia’s forest and peatland fires has spread across Southeast Asia, Catholics in Kalimantan and Malaysia have responded with prayer and calls for sustainable farming, consumption, and cross-border cooperation.
According to Singapore’s National Environment Agency, at 7:00pm on October 16, the air in three of the nation’s five regions was in the “very unhealthy” range, with the 24-hour Pollutant Standards Index at 225 in the central region.
Grace Fu, minister for Sustainability and the Environment, stated that fires on land owned by seven Indonesian companies contributed to Singapore’s haze. The city will require them to put out fires, stop burning, and submit action plans under the Transboundary Haze Pollution Act. The haze may persist until the inter-monsoon period, expected in late October or early November.
Export of smoke
In the Indonesian part of Borneo, Franciscan Father Wilbrodus Andreas, head of the Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Commission in South Kalimantan, described the fires as an “export of smoke”.
The environmental crisis is also a human and moral crisis
Franciscan Father Wilbrodus Andreas
He noted the damage to nature and communities—air pollution, ecosystem loss, respiratory illness, and loss of crops. “The environmental crisis is also a human and moral crisis,” he said, citing Pope Francis’s 2015 encyclical, Laudato Si’.
He stressed that dialogue with policymakers and working with people of goodwill is “the most feasible option” to prevent and halt the fires. “To imagine humanity without the earth is impossible, while the earth without humanity is possible,” he added.
He described the fires as a complex issue requiring collaboration among communities, good-willed individuals, and stakeholders. He urged ongoing prayer, dialogue, and cooperation to resolve the forest and land fires.
Friars at work
In Indonesia, the Franciscan friars “continue to promote integral ecology through education and formation, eco-pastoral formation and collaboration with local communities,” including “encouraging sustainable practices that protect forests and avoid the use of slash-and-burn methods,” said Friar John Wong, OFM, general definitor for Asia-Oceania.
“Our order’s response includes disaster relief and practical assistance, formation and education, healthcare, advocacy, collaboration and prayer. Each has a part to play,” he said.
He emphasized that environmental and community health are inseparable, citing St Francis’ Canticle, which regards all of nature as gifts deserving gratitude and respect.
To imagine humanity without the earth is impossible, while the earth without humanity is possible
Father Andreas
A wounded mother
In Central Kalimantan, Palangka Raya and many districts have been shrouded in smoke since late July, according to Frans DS Sani Lake, director of JPIC Kalimantan, an independent non-governmental organisation founded in 2010 and part of the Central Kalimantan Forest and Land Fire Response Coalition, an interfaith civil society coalition.
By mid-September, nearly 16,000 hectares—mostly peatland—had burned, much of it smouldering even after flames were extinguished, Lake said.
Village communities and Indigenous peoples near the peatlands bear the heaviest burden, inhaling thick smoke, losing farms and food sources, and often being unfairly blamed. JPIC Kalimantan advocates peatland restoration and land rights for Indigenous peoples.
Laudato Si’ calls on people to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor, he said. “In Kalimantan, both are heard in one laboured breath. St. Francis praised God through ‘Sister Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us,’ but the burning peat is a wounded mother.”
Lake argued that faith must go beyond prayer and aid. “Faith also demands ecological conversion and justice: asking who causes the damage, and who bears the consequences,” he said.
He stressed, “Smoke knows no national borders. It is a sign that we truly live in one common home.”
By mid-September, nearly 16,000 hectares—mostly peatland—had burned, much of it smouldering even after flames were extinguished
He welcomed Singapore’s move to trace the companies linked to the fires. “We invite the faithful to ask companies and banks in the region where their profits come from,” he said.
From charity to solidarity
In West Kalimantan, the Church has held novenas for rain, including in the Diocese of Ketapang. Capuchin Father Pionius Hendi said that they have also been handed out, and clean water distributed along with health aid. The diocese has also accompanied families whose homes burned and held seminars on disaster mitigation, according.
“All of that is important and very good,” said the chairperson for Inter-Franciscans for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Indonesia. However, he argued the Church must move “beyond momentary humanitarian aid towards transformative solidarity.”
Father Hendi said, “Solidarity is not simply about acting for the community, but acting with the community. They are not objects of pity, but subjects of change.”
He stressed the need to look past statistics and ask: “who profits from the damage, who must bear the suffering, and why this keeps happening.”
He said, “We cannot keep caring for victims without trying to stop the system that keeps creating victims. We cannot keep handing out masks without asking why our air keeps being polluted.”
Smoke knows no national borders. It is a sign that we truly live in one common home
Father Hendi
Smoke over Palembang
In South Sumatra, people in the provincial capital Palembang and four districts have lived with very poor air for about four months, disrupting schooling, work and worship, said Bonie Bangun, coordinator of Perkumpulan Sumsel Bersih, a civil society group in Palembang. The South Sumatra provincial health office recorded 11,021 cases of acute respiratory infection in its data for the 41st week of the year, up to October 18, he said.
The Justice and Peace Commission of the Archdiocese of Palembang and the Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation office of the Franciscan Sisters of Charity have assessed affected areas, urged people to take health precautions, distributed medicine and masks, and opened health services for affected residents, Bangun said.
He said Perkumpulan Sumsel Bersih and seven other civil groups established a haze response post offering “healthy houses” and collecting aid for residents and firefighters.
Bangun noted that forest and land fires represent both an environmental and a moral crisis, reflecting humanity’s neglect of creation, according to Catholic teaching and Laudato Si’.
“Sister Air”
In Peninsular Malaysia, smoke has blanketed Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Johor and Negeri Sembilan and disrupted parish life, according to the Archdiocesan Creation Justice Ministry under the Archdiocesan Office for Human Development of the Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur. On October 9, the Ministry of Education ordered schools in areas with high air pollution readings to close.
We cannot keep caring for victims without trying to stop the system that keeps creating victims. We cannot keep handing out masks without asking why our air keeps being polluted
Father Hendi
“This haze is a stark visual and physical manifestation of our broken relationship with our common home. It shows that environmental destruction recognises no geopolitical borders; the smoke from fires in Indonesia directly threatens the health of a child in Kuala Lumpur or Singapore,” the ministry said.
“St. Francis’s Canticle of the Creatures praises ‘Brother Wind’ and ‘Sister Air,’ reminding us that clean air is a sacred gift meant to sustain life, not a corporate dumping ground for short-term profit,” it said.
The ministry uses parish networks to educate Catholics about how consumption and unsustainable farming drive ecological suffering. It urged Catholics to press governments for stronger environmental enforcement, protection of remaining peatlands and forests, and closer cooperation between Catholic groups in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia.
In the Diocese of Penang, the haze has disrupted outdoor activities, especially for schoolchildren, the elderly and people with respiratory problems, and on some days has upset parish events, according to Jeanne J Saw, a core team member of the Penang Diocesan Creation Justice Commission, which is led by Deacon Isaac Simbun, and an Animator of Animators for the Asia-Pacific region of the global Laudato Si’ Movement.
The commission prays for those affected and for those fighting the fires, teaches people about environmental degradation and climate change, and promotes responsible consumption and sustainable lifestyles, she said.
“Our solidarity and responsibility must cross borders just as the haze crosses borders,” she said. “As Catholics, we are called not merely to pray for clear skies, but to help build a future in which people, the future generations and all creation can breathe and flourish together.”
