Gemma Salter is on our schools team and produces resources for primary schools.
When I read the papers or the news online, I often find myself looking out for stories from places I’ve visited, or countries that CAFOD partners work in. This happened to me recently, when I came across an article from El Salvador. This one was a striking one – it spoke of the high rates of murder and gang conflict in the country, describing it as the ‘homicide capital of the world’.
Whilst I know gangs and violence are a significant challenge in the country, and I saw this for myself when I visited El Salvador, the article still shocked me. It made me think back to my own trip to El Salvador, where I met eight-year-old Diego and spent time getting to know him and his family.
This is a guest blog from the Climate Coalition, CAFOD supporters joined people from development, environmental and community organisations from across the UK in the Climate Coalition’s Speak Up For The Love Of mass climate lobby of parliament on 17 June.
The UK can still lead on climate change – but we need to see positive action at home
On June 17th, thousands of people from around the country flocked to Westminster to meet their MPs. At over 430 meetings, our leaders were asked to support strong climate action to protect all the things we love that could be lost to climate change.
It was an inspiring day of action, and hundreds of MPs sat up and took notice of a powerful public voice calling for climate action. That evening, Energy Secretary Amber Rudd expressed support for the lobby, and her hope for an ambitious global deal at the UN climate talks in December. But in the wake of recent announcements, many will be asking where is this government’s credible low carbon plan essential for delivering the change we want to see in this country and for providing the credibility for international leadership.
Lancaster dioceses supporters at Speak Up For The Love Of
Our fantastic young climate bloggers have had a busy month campaigning and raising awareness – so much to celebrate! Several groups attended the lobby of parliament last month. Toby, from All Saints, describes the visit to parliament as follows:
All Saints students after the ecumenical service
Seven students from All Saints travelled down to the Houses of Parliament to discuss climate change with their MPs and what they were going to do about it. We began our day with two of our students attending the ecumenical service at the Emmanuel Centre, Westminster. They helped carried two pieces of a broken heart that fitted together. The heart stood for the motto of the lobby, “…for the love of…”.
The crack in the heart was to show what we as humans are doing to the earth. Later we made our way to the Houses of Parliament to rally with our local MPs and discuss the issues and solutions to climate change.
Some students from St James had time to reflect on the lobby and its relevance to the Pope’s encyclical, which was published the day immediately after the lobby.
Students gather at Archbishop’s Park
The opening paragraph of the encyclical sets the tone for the whole document: the Earth “is protesting for the wrong that we are doing to her, because of the irresponsible use and abuse of the goods that God has placed on her. We have grown up thinking that we were her owners and dominators, authorised to loot her. The violence that exists in the human heart, wounded by sin, is also manifest in the symptoms of illness that we see in the Earth, the water, the air and in living things.” Pope Francis, June 2015.
Tania Dalton works in CAFOD’s Latin America Team. Inspired by Laudato Si’ she and a few colleagues are starting a small garden at the CAFOD Romero House office in London.
Tania in Nicaragua
Mary and I have spent 3 lunchtimes shovelling compost in the CAFOD carpark, Janet has brought in tomato plants, Lucy has promised us a courgette, Tory donated some basil seeds and Al and Jamie have done some heavy lifting.
Why? In CAFOD we have been getting very excited about the One Climate, One World campaign. Our campaigns team have worked tirelessly on the mass lobby of parliament with many CAFOD supporters among the 9,000 crowd on 17 June, and now we have the new encyclical from Pope Francis – Laudato Si’, calling us to care for our common home.
There’s a lot of important big picture thinking, mobilising people and influencing policy makers (have you signed our petition?), but I just fancied getting my hands dirty, the smell in my nostrils of a freshly plucked tomato, and somewhere green and shady to sit and eat my sandwich. So we are making a garden on our office balcony in London. Continue reading “Tomatoes: a practical response to Laudato Si’”
Some of our young climate bloggers from St Roberts in Newminster have been thinking about people who inspire them, and ask us, ‘Who is your climate hero?’, having read about Martin, Veronica and William in the One Climate One World action guide. This is what they have to say.
“Of the three of these amazing young people, I think that William from Nicaragua should be seen as a climate hero! He is only 14, yet he is the leader of his environmental group at school and helps to plant trees in the streets and along rivers, and to teach other people in his community to do the same.
“I am the leader of an environment committee at school. We try to get the message out to people to look after the environment because we can’t live or do anything without it, so we have to look after it.” – William
“Brothers, you are killing your fellow countrymen. No soldier has to obey an order to kill. In the name of God and in the name of the suffering people I implore you, I beg you, I order you, stop the repression!”
Clare and Ben from CAFOD at Oscar Romero’s tomb
On 23 March 1980, Archbishop Oscar Romero called on the army in El Salvador to disobey their government and lay down their weapons. He must have suspected that by doing so he was signing his own death warrant.
About the author: Clare Dixon is Head of CAFOD’s Latin America Department and a trustee of the Romero Trust. She reflects on Archbishop Oscar Romero’s beatification today.
The next evening, Romero was celebrating a memorial Mass in San Salvador. The church doors were open and he probably noticed the car drawing up outside. An armed man climbed out, took aim and fired directly at his heart. Romero died instantly, becoming the third bishop in history to be killed in his Church, after Stanislaus of Poland and Thomas Becket.
Today’s ceremony for Romero’s beatification – declaring him “Blessed” in the eyes of the Catholic Church – will see crowds of up to half a million people gather in San Salvador, alongside at least nine Presidents and Church leaders from around the world. This recognition of Romero as a towering figure in Latin America, martyred “in odium fidei” – out of hatred for the faith – is a clear vindication of one of the great figures of the 20th Century, the moral equivalent of Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela or Mahatma Gandhi.
In his three years at the head of the Church in El Salvador, where the military-dominated regime was propped up by the United States to combat a supposed communist threat, Archbishop Romero became the voice of the voiceless. He defended the poorer sectors of society against the violence of paramilitary death squads. His human rights office made daily rounds of the rubbish dumps in San Salvador searching for the bodies of people who’d been murdered, and they kept detailed records of the massacres carried out all around the country Continue reading “Oscar Romero: Clare Dixon’s reflections on his beatification”
Our amazing young climate bloggers were busy during April, raising awareness of our climate change campaign and also raising funds for our Lent and Nepal appeals. Before the General Election, they took action themselves and encouraged all of us to do so by talking to our parliamentary candidates. As Hal from All Saints said before the election:
Hal, young climate blogger from All Saints
“Now that a General Election is coming up it’s the best time to ask your local candidates what they are going to do about climate change if they become MPs, so don’t miss out on this chance. You might think climate change is not as big an issue as the economy or immigration in this election but CAFOD are campaigning about it for a reason which is that it’s the single biggest threat to reducing poverty. We are a global family so we should make it our duty to help those in need or affected by climate change.”
Leah and Emer from St Erconwalds decided to do just that, and they contacted their local MPs. Here’s what they had to say:
“Emer and I have decided to write letters to all of our local MPs about climate change. This isn’t hard
Leah and Emer on blogging residential
to do, because on the CAFOD website they have a page which can show you all of your local MPs and send an email (which is prewritten for you) to them when you enter your postcode and first line of your address. You could easily send it as an email, but we chose to write letters as we felt it was a more prominent way of getting our message across.”
Hi! I’m Olivia, and I’m one of the CAFOD Young Leaders at St Joseph’s. I’ve been invited to be a guest editor for the blog this month, and want to share some news about CAFOD’s work in Nepal, and also the interfaith lobby of parliament that I was involved with as part of the One Climate One World campaign.
This man has been sleeping in a tent since his house was destroyed by the earthquake in Gorkha. Credit: AFP PHOTO/ Matthieu Alexandre / Caritas Internationalis
You will probably have seen the terrible news already, that a second major earthquake hit Nepal yesterday, just over two weeks after the first earthquake claimed more than 8,000 lives. I can’t even imagine how frightened everyone must be, desperately trying to contact their families to make sure they’re safe, staying outside in case more buildings collapse.
The fantastic CAFOD young climate bloggers and Step into the Gap volunteer from Ss John Fisher and Thomas More Roman Catholic High School arranged to meet their local MP, Andrew Stephenson, to lobby him on climate issues. As a result, he raised climate change with the Prime Minister! Watch their video to find out what they asked.
We’re the Fisher More CAFOD young climate bloggers. We invited our local MP, Andrew Stephenson, to our school to discuss the issue of climate change. We had a great afternoon speaking to him and it was fantastic to hear all the things he’s been doing to help tackle climate change and engaging him with our work.
Watch the young climate bloggers’ vlog of Andrew Stephenson’s visit:
22 March is World Water Day. Thanks to your support, we have helped thousands of people around the world to have access to clean, safe water. Donate to our Lent Appeal today and the UK Government will match what you give, £1 for £1, enabling us to reach more of the world’s poorest communities.
If you walk up the slope at the edge of Simoi Masiodo’s tiny village, you’re confronted by a startling sight: thick plumes of steam spurt up from the barren ground. Today, thanks to your support, we’re using this steam to transform people’s lives.
On the edge of Kenya’s Rift Valley, hundreds of steam jets emerge from volcanic hot springs, hidden deep beneath the surface. In some places, these remarkable natural phenomena are tourist attractions. But Simoi’s village – a small cluster of mud huts surrounded by scrubland – is a long way off the tourist trail.
The village is extremely remote, and it’s hard to overstate how difficult life used to be for Simoi. For ten years, this was her daily routine: she would leave her village at four in the morning, along with the rest of her family and all their animals. They would trek through thick forest, taking care to avoid hyenas and buffaloes. Finally, at around midday, they would reach the nearest stream, where they would fetch water. Then they would turn around and set off home again. Continue reading “World Water Day: hope from hot springs”
