"Healing a Broken World"

 "We are all a part of creation. We have to realize that we preserve our life in harmony with creation." With these words, the Catholic Times begins the interview with Fr. Pedro Walpole from the Philippines, an expert in ecology who visited Korea to discuss ecological issues with Korean Jesuits.

"It is an opportunity," he said, "to discuss the situation and how we've responded to the world of creation, and to see what Korea has been doing to achieve peace." Fr. Pedro was one of the experts who drew up the paper "Healing a Broken World," a report drawn up by the task force on ecology of the Social Justice and Ecology Secretariat of the Society of Jesus.

The 2010 report, translated into Korean this past March, provides information, global vision and spiritual resources and recommendations, which Fr. Pedro passed on to the Korean Jesuits. The paper explained not only to the Jesuits but to the whole Church that we have to take responsibility for caring for the environment, examining and carrying out the recommendations suggested in the report.

The paper mentions many areas of concern, including an interesting insight regarding the climate impasse we are all familiar with. Three reasons were given for the difficulty:

1. The enormous economic challenge of reducing greenhouse gases.

2. The complexity of climate science.

3. The deliberate campaigns to confuse the public and discredit the science.

Fr. Pedro in the hour interview, instead of talking about the big and small ecological issues, stressed that our primary concern should be to discover the cause of the problem, which he believes can be found in our wrong attitude toward the problem. There is a lack of trust in one another, resulting in more of us deciding to live separated from others.

People in the city, especially, having lost the bond they should have with others, are searching for comfort as their number-one goal, he said. They are like a floating buoy, with many not reflecting on what is eaten or where it comes from. To solve the problems, we need to become more conscious of our lifestyles, he said, and more grateful for the life that has been given to us.   

" We should be giving life to one another and be concerned for the sustainability of our relationships with others and with nature," he said. "This is important not only for Christians but for all of us. We have to rid ourselves of the habit of consuming for our comfort, and seek to communicate more with others. Many aspects of our life depend on finances for the development of science and industry, however, we should be at least equally concerned with efforts to preserve and develop a healthy way of living."