Church to divest assets in firms involved in ‘dirty energy’

MANILA, Philippines — Catholic bishops yesterday vowed to divest the church’s assets in mining companies involved in “dirty energy” such as coal.

Fr. Edwin Gariguez, executive secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) National Secretariat for Social Action, Justice and Peace, said the prelates made the commitment in response to the recent call made by Pope Francis in his encyclical letter on the environment.

“They adopted it (10 action points) so they will divest from coal, but you invest in renewable sources of energy,” Gariguez said.

He said divesting from coal is one of the 10 action points which he presented to the bishops during the recent Plenary Assembly of the CBCP in Manila.

“I told the bishops, we need to come up with a pastoral letter but it should be accompanied by action points because we need to walk the talk. We need to do concrete actions in response to the pope’s challenge,” Gariguez said.

The CBCP official said at least four bishops who have investments in coal were willing to divest.

In a separate interview, San Carlos Bishop Gerardo Alminaza said they have been at the forefront of caring for the environment as this is an integral part of their discipleship.

“Soon, we will release a pastoral letter with an updated assessment of our present situation and concrete action points we need to do because these are long overdue,” he said.