‘Greening’ of Church sacraments launched

BAGUIO CITY—The Catholic Church is embarking on what it describes as “the greening of the sacraments” by encouraging participants in baptismal rites to plant trees on behalf of newly christened babies.

Baguio Bishop Carlito Cenzon said this was the church’s commitment to President Aquino’s national greening program, which directs all agencies to plant 1.5 billion trees by 2016.

The Cordillera leg of the program was launched on Thursday at Teachers’ Camp by Assistant Secretary Regidor de Leon (not Remigio as reported) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

Not for show

“Every Filipino will be asked to plant 10 trees each year [to fulfill this goal]… These trees are meant to grow, not for show,” said De Leon.

Clarence Baguilat, DENR Cordillera director, said the region is tasked with planting 3.4 million trees on 6,338 hectares of land by yearend.

Cenzon said the goal is achievable because Catholics have already devised ways of incorporating tree planting in their lives.

He said he has made “the greening of the sacraments” a baptismal policy.

Without much fanfare, Cenzon said the Church has asked godparents to plant a tree, which represents their growing commitment to the newly christened child.

It was not a new idea.

Inspiration

The bishop said he was inspired by a June 6 baptism, where participants were handed tree saplings affixed with a note, “Please plant this tree for me.”

Cenzon said it would help fuel the city’s own reforestation drive.

Shortly after the 1990 earthquake, reporters, environmentalists and government officials organized the Baguio Regreening Movement (BRM), which sought to revive city watersheds that have been denuded or overrun with squatters.

The church is a member of the BRM, which was one of the 36 organizations, schools and agencies that committed to fulfill the country’s ambitious national greening program.

President Aquino has issued an order banning commercial logging nationwide, which environmentalists hailed as the boldest move so far in protecting whatever is left of the country’s forests.

Illegal logging continues, however, especially in the Sierra Madre mountain ranges where syndicates financing the operations are lording it over a small army of forest rangers.