The Catholic Bishops Conference of India is focusing on ecological justice as it celebrates Justice Sunday on 16 August 2015. Justice Sunday is an annual event in the life of the Catholic Church in India. The Indian Bishops’ Office for Justice, Peace and Development has prepared a booklet to help Catholics to reflect on ecological justice. It contains a message from the CBCI Office for Justice, Peace and Development, prayers of intercession, and homily notes.
The CBCI Office for Justice, Peace and Development reminds readers that this is not a new issue for the Indian Bishops:
The Catholic Bishops of India has a clear grasp of the complex ecological issues plaguing the country and made a firm resolve to address those issues in February 2014 when they declared: “We stand for sustainable development of peoples and human ecology” (Final Statement of the 31st CBCI General Body Meeting, Pala, 2014, no. 5.8).
They call on all Christians to “get their hands dirty” in ecological justice action saying that an integral ecology is “made up of simple daily gestures which break with the logic of violence, exploitation and selfishness (LS, no. 231)” and express the hope “that our faith in a Creator-God will translate into a firm commitment to effectively living our ‘ecological vocation’ as stewards of God’s creation, promoters of human ecology, and defenders of environmental justice.”
Read the full Justice Sunday Message.