Kisumu Archbishop Maurice Muhatia has paid tribute to Pope Francis as an environmental conservationist who played a central role in advocating for a sustainable and healthier planet.
Muhatia eulogized the late Pope for his dedication to nature’s conservancy and an unflinching determination to protect the environment.
The Archbishop noted that the late Pope drew the world’s attention to environmental conservation through his tireless advocacy that inspired Christians and world leaders to protect the environment.
“He reminded us that the earth is our common home and we have a responsibility to future generations as well,” Muhatia said in his Homily during the Pope’s requiem mass at St. Theresa’s Cathedral Kibuye on Thursday.
The Archbishop added, “We need to keep the environment safe and look after it by doing simple things like keeping it clean, growing trees, and not doing things that pollute the environment.”
Muhatia criticized reckless environmental practices, including the careless disposal of plastic bottles and called for stronger measures such as banning single-use plastics to combat pollution.
“Sometimes you feel very upset. You are driving on the road and the car ahead of you, somebody in that car throws from inside a water bottle. Who is going to collect that bottle for you? We need to focus our attention on this kind of little recklessness,” Muhatia observed.
Perhaps we should reduce the use of plastics in our celebrations because people misbehave with them after use. They don’t take care of them, he added.
The Archbishop encouraged worshippers to view Pope Francis’s passing as a call to renew their commitment to environmental protection, highlighting the late pontiff’s enduring legacy of championing environmental justice and care for society’s most vulnerable.
Pope Francis, he noted, inspired the Church to listen more to the poor and marginalized, urging clerics to pay attention to the social, economic, spiritual and geographical challenges of those on the periphery.
“Pastors must pay attention to our brothers and sisters in the margin. Not just paying attention to the center. The center is close to us. The periphery is far from us and is very easy to forget and ignore,” the Archbishop emphasized.
Beyond environmental issues, Archbishop Muhatia also recalled Pope Francis’s commitment to peace and human dignity, noting his appeal for respect for human life during his 2015 visit to Kenya, shortly after the Garissa University attack.
The pontiff who died on April 21 in Rome, aged 88, is scheduled to be buried on Saturday.
His death came after a series of worsening health problems, including a diagnosis of double pneumonia that put him in the hospital for more than a month earlier this year.
By Robert Ojwang’
