Scottish Catholic Observer

All involved in the field of mining ‘are called upon to adopt behaviour inspired by the fact that we constitute a single human family, everything is interconnected,’ Pope Francis said last Saturday.

He stressed that genuine care for our own lives and our relationship with nature is ‘inseparable from fraternity, justice and faithfulness to others.’

The Pope made his comments in a message sent to participants in a July 17-19 conference titled United to God, We Hear a Cry, organised by the Vatican’s Council for Justice and Peace and the Latin American Churches and Mining Network.

Held at Rome’s Salesianum Congress Centre, the meeting gathered community leaders, labourers and families involved in and affected by the mining industry. The event featured testimonies from those who have suffered first hand from corruption and torture.

Mining was a subject the Holy Father also touched on in his recent encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si’, released June 18.

In his message, the Pope noted that there are many communities, families and individuals who frequently suffer both directly and indirectly due to the ‘too often negative’ consequences of mining activities.

The Holy Father also pointed to the frequent contamination of the water, air and land, and the cry of ‘incomprehension for the absence for inclusive processes or support from the civil, local and national authorities, which have the fundamental duty to promote the common good.’

The Pope made an ‘urgent appeal’ for collaboration in fighting environmental degradation and fostering an ‘integral, inclusive’ sustainable development. He called on governments in countries where mining takes place, suppliers, business leaders and investors to hold multinational mining companies to a socially responsible behaviour.

Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, spoke with journalists July 17 about the closed-door meeting, saying that we cannot remain indifferent to both ‘the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor’ highlighted by Pope Francis in his encyclical Laudato Si’.

In 2013 the council organised a similar conference titled Mining for the common good, which was followed up by a report handed out to the various episcopal conferences involved. This week’s meeting serves as a preparation for a second conference titled Creating a new future, Reimaging the future of mining, scheduled to take place in September.

“Many of us are aware of this harrowing cry from those areas where mineral extraction is carried out,” the cardinal said, and pointed to various reports informing on the status of the rights of indigenous populations and legislation on mineral traceability currently being developed by the European Parliament.

He also pointed to the portrayal of these injustices seen in films such as Blood Diamond and Avatar.

—This story ran in full in the July 24 edition print of the SCO, available in parishes.