Caritas India and Misereor plans to have a join Lenten campaign for the next year. The first of its kind in the history of Caritas India. The theme for the Lenten campaign will be climate change.

Both organisation has a long standing relations of over 50 years in the development sector. This campaign is significant in terms of collaboration between Caritas India (The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India) and Misereor (The German Catholic Bishops’ Organisation for Development Cooperation).

Inspired by the Encyclical of Pope Francis ‘Laudato Si’ which talks about the addressing climate change, the campaign will create awareness on the impact of climate change suffered by both countries in varying intensity.

A delegation of Caritas India team led by Executive Director, Fr. Frederick D’Souza discussed the plans for this joint campaign with the Misereor team at Aachen, Germany from May 15-19, 2017.

Fr. Frederick shared with Misereor team that ‘Laudato Si’ is a universal call of the Church which talks about climate change which is affecting both India and Germany but the impact varies. So, there is a greater need to work together through this joint campaign to avert climate change and the need of the hour is to produce with accountability and consume with responsibility.

The official campaign launch of India chapter will be done during the CBCI Plenary meeting in February where Cardinal Reinhard Marx, chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference will be addressing the plenary on the forthcoming joint campaign.

There will be multiplier trips from both the countries to witness and advocate the Lenten campaign theme of their respective countries. In the coming days, both the organisations will work closely towards developing Information, Education, and Communication (IEC) Materials for both the countries.

A team from Misereor will visit India in the month of June, 2017 to understand and capture the impact of Climate Change. The team will interact with the community and people at large in the project areas of Caritas India to grasp the realities and arrest the models of success for the campaign.