Aid to the Church in Need: Global Warming creating poverty in Ethiopia

Global Warming creating poverty in Ethiopia

Posted by Press Release on 30/9/2009, 11:40 am
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ACN News: Wednesday, 30th September 2009 – ETHIOPIA

Global Warming creating poverty in Ethiopia

By John Newton

GLOBAL warming has been blamed by Catholics in Ethiopia for the dramatic increase in poverty that the country is experiencing at this time.
Speaking to Aid to the Church in Need, the charity for persecuted and other suffering Christians, Bishop Rodrigo Meija of the Vicariate of Soddo-Hosanna described how food shortages in his diocese caused by lack of rain are leading to poverty – and said that people are attributing the weather changes to global warming.
The news follows Pope Benedict XVI’s message to the UN on 24 September, in which the Pontiff underlined the urgency of addressing climate change.
Bishop Rodrigo Meija told ACN that a change in weather patterns was the biggest problem facing rural food growers in the Vicariate, and revealed that farmers had noticed a change occurring in the seasons over a number of years.
He said: “The rainy season is no longer regular – so people don’t know when to start planting.”
Traditionally Ethiopia enjoyed a regular rainy season from mid-June to mid-September but now rains are intermittent.
Bishop Meija said: “At a popular level some people say it is due to global warming – this may be true – all the seasons are disturbed.”

(Bishop Rodrigo Meija)

The bishop said the problems could be a side effect of global warming, but added he had not seen any scientific data on the subject.
He added: “Poverty is certainly linked [to the lack of rainfall] as these people are still basically rural, and live off their own produce which depends on rain.”
The bishop explained how, working in tandem with the government, Catholic relief services had responded quickly to the food shortage.
The bishop added: “At the moment we are catering for the most urgent problems – so for the moment it is under control.”
However, he confided in ACN that he was uncertain what would occur over the months ahead.
Bishop Meija said: “It is difficult to foresee [what will happen in the future], we don’t know if the effect of global warming will get worse – there is no scientific point of reference.”
With 75 million people in Ethiopia, it is the third most populated country after Nigeria and Egypt – meaning the scale of the problem could be immense.
In his address to the UN Pope Benedict XVI alluded to his recent encyclical Caritas in Veritate which addressed environmental concerns.
The Pontiff said: “our use of [the environment] entails a personal responsibility towards humanity as a whole, particularly towards the poor and towards future generations.”
He added: “The protection of the environment, and the safeguarding of resources and of the climate, oblige all leaders to act jointly, respecting the law and promoting solidarity with the weakest regions of the world.”
According to Bishop Meija lack of education is another key factor leading to poverty.
The Church is renowned throughout Ethiopia for its education, which is open to all regardless of faith, ranging from play school to secondary schools – and recently the Church set up a Catholic university which is now in its first year.
Bishop Meija concluded by thanking ACN’s benefactors for their continuing generosity towards the Church in Ethiopia.
ACN helped Ethiopia with more $1 million for pastoral projects in 2008, including formation for catechists, priests and seminarians and Church building.

Editor’s Notes:

Directly under the Holy See, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need. ACN is a Catholic charity – helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.

Founded in 1947 by Fr Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An outstanding Apostle of Charity”, the organisation is now at work in about 130 countries throughout the world.

The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 46.5 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.

For more information, please contact the Australian office of ACN on (02) 9679-1929. e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org or write to Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148. Web: www.aidtochurch.org

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Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148 ABN: 62 418 911 594
Ph/Fax (02) 9679-1929 e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org web: www.aidtochurch.org