Pedro Walpole SJ
In a side meeting of the Asian Catholic Actors and the Climate Change Desk Asia of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) in Belém, Brazil during COP30, the question faced is: What is at stake for FABC and how to continue beyond this COP?
Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrão, FABC President, summed up well the message to take back home to communities that will help deepen the awareness of climate change, the COP process, and call for implementation. Platforms must be identified for broader sharing of what was learned and what actions are being taken locally.
Materials for reflection include the following:
- A Call for Justice in the Common Home: Ecological Conversion, Transformation, and Resistance to False Solutions – A message from the Catholic Episcopal Conferences and Councils of Afria, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean on the occasion of COP30 (12 June 2025)
- FABC Pastoral Letter to the Local Churches in Asia on the Care of Creation: A Call to Ecological Conversion (15 March 2025)
- The Jubilee of Hope and so many signs of hope
- Engagement with Basic Human Communities to deepen faith relations as ecology affects all
- The role of FABC in encouraging local action
It is most important is to go back and listen to our communities as to their understanding of integral ecology and faith dialogue in their lives. Their strength as community is found in their sustained care for each other and to share the hope in acting together.
The only power local communities have is the witness and stories they can share of their experiences and cross-generational support. We are called in our own right to journey with the poor in the year ahead and experience how to keep this relationship at the center.
Pedro Walpole SJ is the RAOEN Coordinator and headed the RAOEN delegation to COP30.
