Church to set up ‘Prithvi Parivar’ eco movement

Panaji: Doing its bit to counter climate change, the Catholic Church in India will launch Prithvi Parivar, a pan-India ecological movement. Initiated by the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India’s (CCBI) commission for ecology, the movement will be unveiled on Saturday by CCBI president Archbishop Filipe Neri Ferrao.
The launch will coincide with the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, the commission’s chairperson Bishop Allwyn D’Silva said.
The commission will hold an open discussion at the launch and develop a roadmap for the next six months.
D’Silva said the movement is inspired by the launch of the Laudato Si Action platform last month where Pope Francis highlighted the need for a new ecological approach: an integral human ecology…that becomes capable of listening to the cry of the poor and of being a leaven for a new society.
A steering committee with gender and geographic representation will animate the movement. It will involve people of all faiths and will engage with different sectors including the medical fraternity, business, economists and media persons.
“Right now we only have a central commission. Each diocese will be starting commissions for ecology too. Soon our archdiocese will have a branch of the ecology commission in Goa,” Chicalim parish priest Fr Bolmax Pereira told TOI.
At launch of the movement on Saturday, D’Silva will set out its objectives, while Ferrao will deliver the inaugural address.