IRELAND
Irish Independent
Fr Seán McDonagh
PUBLISHED
09/08/2016
In recent times, I have been writing about climate change and how Ireland is not living up to its obligations. The situation is very serious. Scientists are telling us that 2015 was the hottest year on record and that 2016 is expected to be even warmer.
The issue will lead to the death and displacement of millions of people, but unfortunately our media and politicians have been slow to grapple with it in an effective and competent way. It is only very recently that the leadership of the Catholic Church has begun to take the environmental degradation of the planet seriously.
In June 2015, Pope Francis published an extraordinary encyclical on the care of creation, entitled ‘Laudato Si: On Care For Our Common Home’.
So could it be that Ireland and the Catholic Church might finally be discussing this document in August 2016? Alas, no.
But in the social and economic sphere, we also face other serious challenges today. Research by Oxfam Ireland has pointed out that the share of income going to workers has fallen as the size of the global economy more than doubled over the past three decades.
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