FOR THE LOVE OF CREATION



The COMÉCO   It's proposals and its dreams

This weekend the world celebrates The Earth Day, it is a timely reminder of our responsibility to care for the environment and protect the earth's natural resources. The love of creation is not just a concept, but a tangible reality that we need to preserve for future generations.

During the second phase of the general assembly, the COMÉCO presented a proposal addressing the issue of Integral Ecology to the general assembly of the SME. The presentation is a positive step towards raising awareness and a call towards taking commitment on matters regarding Ecology.





  It is important that we all play our part, whether through small individual actions, as a Society or collective efforts with like-minded persons, to make a positive impact on the environment, including the urgent need to promote a more sustainable and holistic approach to ecology.  Together, we can work towards a sustainable future for ourselves and the planet.


Find below the proposal, the dream that what shared by COMÉCO to the general assembly for consideration. As we celebrate Earth Day, let us take a moment to reflect on their work as we welcome their invitation and appreciate their efforts. 



FOR THE LOVE OF CREATION

The COMÉCO (Ecology Committee)
submits its favorites, its
proposals and its dreams to the general Assembly of the SME
 
«Proclaim the Good News to every creature! »  (Mark 16,15)

To love Creation is to love ourselves. To take care of the Creation is vital for the disciple of Jesus and for his/her mission.  
 
That is why, in the presence of the catastrophes that ate multiplying on our planet and the abyss in which humanity has already begun to sink into, we are happy as a missionary Society to resolutely move towards a vision of things, a mentality, a spirituality and an action wearing the clear mark of a sincere love for ecology.  
 
Because of our love and fidelity to the humble pope Francis, we make our own his courageous and enlightening encyclical Laudato si’ about the safekeeping of the common house.  
From the upcoming Central Council of the SME we are expecting a true leadership in matters in line with ecology.
 With all our hearts we support the initiatives for the protection of the environment taken by our members and by our missionary groups all over Canada and in our mission lands.
 
We support and manifest our affection and admiration to the First Nations of Québec, of Canada and of our mission countries. Thanks to the links which connect them closely to Nature, those peoples have succeeded the extraordinary feast of surviving the onslaughts of colonialism which has tried and still do to assimilate or get rid of them. Those Peoples are our masters. Never shall we regret enough of having very often shamefully ignored them, underestimated them, ill-treated them or treated them high-handedly.
 
We also wish to assure our solidarity with the ecologist groups like Équiterre, Nature-Québec, Foundation David Suzuki, Église verte, Greenpeace, Avaaz, and also with the ecology groups in the countries where we are still present. We believe that those organizations are in no way alien to what we are by the simple fact that we share with them the same sublime cause to defend, to serve and to make life shine.
 We intend to keep an open eye on the mine extraction activities of the Canadian multinationals particularly those that are destructive of the environment and for the local populations of many developing countries. We will join the pressure groups that condemn the abuses of those well-known firms poorly preoccupied by justice and the protection of Nature.
 
For the purpose of fomenting and nourishing in us an ecological culture, it would be convenient to give a certain importance to the celebration of the great moments and events of Nature, like the solstices and the equinoxes, the seasons like sowing ones , the harvests, water, the world day of the Earth, and also the most promising innovations in matters of protection of the environment. It would be good also to honour the most important social victories of the past and of the present by highlighting how the rights of the Earth, the option for the poor, human rights, the emancipation of women, the equality of people, the struggles for social justice, for liberation, for democracy and for the respect of persons which have a different sexual orientation: all of this is interrelated and has much to do with evangelization.
 
In our interpersonal relationships and in our public interventions, we should not let pass the occasions to opportunely stress the intrinsic unity which exists between ecology, social justice, the Word of God and mission. It would be good also to contribute in offering on the same topic simple and live articles accessible to the youth and to the general public.
 
As for the permanent formation, we would like to organize, in partnership with other groups, workshops and sessions on ecology that would be animated by qualified persons.
 And as for our candidates to priesthood or as lay missionaries, it would be commendable to enrol them in an important formation session on ecology and encourage them to make a theological reflection and some pastoral animation on the subject.
 
Thinking about it, it would not be useless to integrate in the application for association    of our lay missionaries and future priests as members of the SME the formal intention to commit themselves in the mission by taking into account specifically the ecological dimension of evangelization.
We believe that it would be very useful to create a small office or secretariate to follow up the enforcement of the commitments taken by that General Assembly in matters having to do with ecology. That office would also have as a duty to spread among the members of the SME informations, novelties and communications concerning initiatives or projects in line with that question.
 
These proposals are presented to the attention of the general Assembly 2022-2023 of the Society of the Foreign-Missions in Pont-Viau on February 2, 2023 in the year 102 of its existence. They are the initiative of the COMECO (Ecology Committee of the Central House of the SME) with the following members : Jean-Yves Isabel, Jean Binette, Clément Bolduc, Édouard-René Morin, Jean-Charles-Loiselle, Gilles Poirier, Marie-Laure Joly and Eloy Roy.