The theme for 2023 Season of Creation is: Let Justice and Peace Flow. The Prophet Amos cries out: “But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” (Amos 5: 24) The Genesis text tells us that human sin destroys our relationship with God, severs human bonds and disfigures creation.
We must work together on behalf of all Creation and speak out with and for the communities most impacted by climate injustice and the loss of biodiversity.
Over 450 scientists were involved in The Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (2019). It confirms that we are now living through the sixth largest extinction of life on earth since life began 3.8 billion years ago. Future generations of species are at risk, unless radical action is taken by humans.
The last time such a catastrophe struck the earth was 66 million years ago when an asteroid crashed into the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico causing the extinction of 75 percent of animal life, including the dinosaurs.
In 2019, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature estimated that 41% of amphibians, 25% of mammals, 34% of conifers, 13% of birds, 31% of sharks and rays and 17% of crustaceans are threatened with extinction.
In 2017, a study by German scientists found that insect species, including pollinators, had decreased by 75% since 1987. One third of the world’s food depends on pollinators. If these become extinct, agricultural yields would plummet globally causing widespread famine.
Dr Liam Lysaght of the National Biodiversity Centre in Ireland has warned that Ireland is not immune from biodiversity losses. Of the 3,000 species that have undergone red list conservation assessment, one in four species is threatened with extinction.
Among the species he mentions are the Atlantic Salmon, the Curlew, the Freshwater Pearl and many more. He recommends the setting up of a Government Department for Biodiversity and the rural economy.
In the Encyclical Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home, Pope Francis quotes Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople. He writes, “for humans to strip the earth of its natural beauty or destroy the wetland; for humans to contaminate the earth’s waters, land, its air and its life – these are sins.” (Par 9). This is a new teaching for the Christian Churches which was not there when I studied moral theology many years ago.
Christianity needs an Extinction Liturgy in which sadness over the extinction of many wonderful creatures created by God can be expressed. Such liturgies might inspire us to protect biodiversity locally and globally in everything we do.
Columban missionary Fr Sean McDonagh served with the T’boli people in the Philippines and is President of An Taisce.
First published in the September/October 2023 issue of the Far East magazine. Please subscribe here and support Columban Missionaries. Just €10 for a year’s digital subscription and €20 for the print edition. https://columbans.ie/product/far-east-magazine-yearly-subscription/
