Calling for Interfaith Cooperation for Ecological Sustainability at Vatican Climate Summit
Dharma Master Hsin Tao was invited to ‘Faith & Science: Climate Summit Toward COP26’ in Vatican to share his visionary concept of ‘Spiritual Ecology’ and signed a joint appeal issued by Pope Francis and prominent religious leaders on climate change.
Religious leaders shoulder irreplaceable responsibilities in the face of climate change and ecology issues. Dharma Master Hsin Tao, Founder of the Museum of World Religions (MWR), was invited to the conference ‘Faith & Science: Climate Summit Toward COP26’ in Vatican to share his visionary concept of ‘Spiritual Ecology’ and signed a joint appeal issued by Pope Francis and prominent religious leaders on climate change. On the Master's behalf to participate in the event was Dr. Maria Reis Habito, MWR Director of International Affairs, who physically planted an olive tree for commemoration. Master Hsin Tao expressed hopes for interfaith cooperation to push governments in expediting zero emission of carbon dioxide and contribute to consolidating sustainability by way of education and environmental protection tactics.
The UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties will hold the COP26 Summit in Glasgow, Scotland, from Oct. 31 to Nov. 12. For a pre-meeting, the UK, Italy and the Vatican organized the ‘Faith & Science: Climate Summit Toward COP26’ with invitations to more than 50 religious leaders and outstanding scientists for participation from the USA, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan among others, to explore shared visions of sustainability.
The afore-said pre-meeting signed its resolutions into a joint appeal in the Vatican on Oct. 4 to the world's attention to take scientific warnings seriously that we can no longer squander away the precious, last opportunity to restore the Earth with the terminal decade already ticking away. As a strong statement in favor of world policies on climate change, the Joint Appeal was handed over by Pope Francis to COP Chairman Alok Sharma and Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio.
At the Oct. 4 conference, Master Hsin Tao shared his vision via a pre-taped video, that mankind and ecology belong together in a living community for life, which is a quintessential symbiosis that only works in the long run by virtue of mutual respect and tolerance, and shared via altruistic love. Once divorced from the spiritual purity and good, the human heart and mind filled with wanton desires out of attachment, anger, ignorance, arrogance, and doubt is apt to topple ecological balance to give rise to climate change that jeopardizes the positive interflow of events in the Earth's overall structure both within and without. To solve the problems, those responsible for the calamities must awaken to realize that disasters are well underway and changes must happen right away by putting an end to all exploitations and confrontations to ultimately enable the unification of ecology with spirituality to arrive at sustainability for both man and Nature. Dharma Master Hsin Tao further calls out to religions for working closely in unison in going back to spirituality and simple lifestyles that are pro-life and pro-ecology, in order that wars can be contained and resources can thus accordingly be employed to education on spiritual ecology.
A media presentation for the Joint Appeal of the COP26 pre-meeting took place at the multi-purpose Life & Peace Auditorium of the MWR Oct. 5 to amplify its significance on global politics and economies. Vatican representatives to the Republic of China in Taiwan, Msgr. Arnoldo Catalan and Msgr. Pavol Talapka, and Chairman Eugene Chien of the Taiwan Institute for Sustainable Energy (TAISE) were among the dignitaries present on the occasion. Msgr. Arnaldo Catalan made a special gift of the Pope's second encyclical (the Chinese version of Laudato si’ = On Care of Our Common Home) to Dharma Master Hsin Tao, which was graciously received by Master Liao Yi on the Master's behalf in his capacity as the CEO of the Development Foundation of the MWR.
At the press conference, Msgr. Arnaldo Catalan remarked that the Joint Appeal of the pre-COP26 meeting not only exercises direct influence on political leaders who will join the world summit in Glasgow but also contributes to intensifying interfaith cooperations. Thus accordingly, Dharma Master Hsin Tao yielded a profound impact of international magnitude on the issue of climate change on behalf of Taiwan's religious community. He expressed sincere appreciation for the Master's engagement in the Vatican co-initiative over the past six months while congratulating the MWR on its unfailing efforts in interfaith endeavors in past years.
TAISE Chairman Eugene Chien pointed out what pinches the shoes for the world in general, and for Taiwan in particular when it comes to energy. He calls for consensus to be made among different communities across the board by way of education as a cooperation among non-profit bodies and the religious community to support announced public goals of energy conservation and emission deduction by adopting lifestyle changes to reflect what Master Hsin Tao has since long been advocating for environmental protection via deliverables such as vegetarian consumption and implementation of the ‘Environmental Triple Rs’ rule to reduce, reuse and recycle for environmental sustainability.
