The Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council says Catholics should include sins against the environment when they visit the confessional.
The directive came in a recent meeting of the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council (KCBC) – an association of the Catholic bishops in Kerala, India – during which the council finalised its ecological mission statement.
Rev Dr Stephen Alathara, Deputy Secretary General and spokesman for the KCBC, said the ecological mission statement, which includes the directive about confession, will be circulated among dioceses in February next year.
“Any exploitation of nature amounts to sins against God,” he told the news agency CathNews India. “Nature is the gift of God. So we must minimise its exploitation and misuse.”
Fr Alathara said the document on ecology, which includes plans to adopt green architecture for church educational buildings, promote solar energy and discourage the use of plastics, aimed to “promote greater awareness among the faithful on how to follow green spirituality as a Christian”.
Green activists have welcomed the directive, saying the Church had set a role model for others to follow.