MISEREOR Lenten Campaign 2022
Make a change. For climate justice!
The slogan of this year’s Lenten Campaign is a claim, a commitment and Jesus’ promise all in one. It is part of MISEREOR’s DNA and drives the work of our partner organisations.
Over the past year, extreme weather in the shape of typhoons, forest fires and destructive floods in Germany and its neighbouring countries have pushed the boundaries of what we consider conceivable. People lost their loved ones. The news was full of events that we usually associate with countries of the South but were suddenly taking place right on our own doorstep. Where were you, God?
Scientists have concluded that these extreme weather situations are a consequence of humaninduced climate change. Painful as it is, these events are opening our eyes to the damage we are doing to Mother Earth, God’s creation.
It is plain to see that today, as in the past, the world’s industrialised nations are responsible for most CO2 emissions, while poorer countries in particular are bearing the brunt of the consequences of global warming. Pope Francis talks of humanity as
people who share a common home and notes that everything is interconnected and that we simultaneously have a joint and an individual
responsibility. If we share this attitude, then it is clear that the time for metanoia, for reorientation and reformation, has come. Now is the time to put words about justice into action: in the face of the climate crisis, no one must be left behind. The alternative to poverty is a community built on solidarity. That is where you are, God!
In his encyclical Laudato Si’, Pope Francis says that in order to ensure that new models of progress arise, we have to change ‘models of global development’ (cf. LS 194). He is referring here to the kind of development that brings forth an affluent minority at the expense
of the majority and of Mother Earth. Progress means seeing the writing on the wall and really changing direction and reforming; really developing rigorous, consistent policies and responsible economic practices and really allowing ourselves to be shaken out of our complacency by Earth Overshoot Day, which is gradually moving forward in the calendar. With you, God!
Stand up and take action for greater climate justice: let us share the resources we have been given in a responsible manner.
Make a change. For climate justice.
Pirmin Spiegel
Director General of Misereor