JASIKAN APRIL 21, 2017(CISA-Bishop Gabriel Akwasi Abiabo Mante of the Catholic Diocese of Jasikan has called on the priests, men and women religious, and lay faithful to intensify education on tree planting and care of nature.
“Let there be extension of the tree planting to learning institutions and families. The media too should promote environmental protection through tree planting,” said Bishop Mante.
He was speaking April 11, during the re launch of “Arbor Week” celebration at Jasikan.
Bishop Mante, reported CANAA, said the re-launch was aimed at an “ecological conversion and responsible change of direction in relationship with the environment.”
Observed in many countries at the beginning of the rainy season, Arbor Day is a day set aside to encourage individuals and groups to plant and care for trees as part of efforts to fight climate change.
He said that it was a response to the invitation of Pope Francis to seriously listen, consider and resolve to help repair the damage humanity was causing the earth “our common home.”
Dilating on the Pope Francis’ Encyclical Laudato Si, Bishop Mante said its name was taken from the invocation of the Canticles of creatures by St. Francis of Assisi: Laudato Si “Praise be to you, my Lord through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and govern us, and who produces various fruits with coloured flowers and herbs.”
He noted that in 1998, the Ghana catholic Bishops’ Conference launched a tree planting programme in Kumasi, to be carried out annually in the first week of June of which Jasikan Diocese launched it in the last week of May 1998 during the Annual Diocesan pilgrimage to Tokuroano.
