The fol­low­ing is the Mes­sage from the pre­fect of the Dicas­t­ery for Pro­mot­ing Inte­gral Human Devel­op­ment, His Emi­nence Car­di­nal Michael Czerny, S.J., on the occa­sion of World Fish­eries Day, to be held on 21 Novem­ber 2024:

Mes­sage

“LET THE WATERS BRING FORTH SWARMS OF LIVING CREATURES” (Gen 1:20)

Dear broth­ers and sisters,

the waters of the deep often appear in Sacred Scrip­ture as a sym­bol of the insta­bil­i­ty and rest­less­ness that are part of our human expe­ri­ence. God’s peo­ple, how­ev­er, remain firm in hope, for the covenant between heav­en and earth is sol­id and ren­ders even the sea tra­vers­a­ble. This imagery speaks to our minds and hearts, and alters our per­cep­tion of our dai­ly work and its accom­pa­ny­ing chal­lenges. The annu­al cel­e­bra­tion of World Fish­eries Day offers us a par­tic­u­lar oppor­tu­ni­ty to deep­en our rela­tion­ship with “Sis­ter Water” and with the inte­gral human devel­op­ment of all.

Fish­ing, which is one of the most ancient forms of human work, has great­ly changed in many parts of our plan­et. The harm done to our com­mon home by an aggres­sive and divi­sive eco­nom­ic mod­el can be said to have direct­ly affect­ed the life and future of mil­lions of human beings who make their liv­ing from fish­ing. Age-old equi­lib­ria between human labour and the nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment have been dis­rupt­ed by preda­to­ry prac­tices and the use of tech­nol­o­gy for the ben­e­fit of an increas­ing­ly influ­en­tial and pow­er­ful minor­i­ty, uncon­cerned for the medi­um and long-term effects of this lethal econ­o­my. Thus the cre­ative com­mand – “Let the waters bring forth swarms of liv­ing crea­tures” (Gen 1:20) – has been vio­lat­ed by inten­sive fish­ing, which is exclud­ing those who for cen­turies have cared for the rich­es of seas, rivers and great lakes.

The Church shares in the joys and hopes but also the sor­rows and grief of a human­i­ty called at this moment in his­to­ry to redis­cov­er fra­ter­ni­ty as a social and polit­i­cal real­i­ty and the cul­ture of encounter as an alter­na­tive to the glob­al­iza­tion of indif­fer­ence. Chris­tians can­not look the oth­er way when entire ecosys­tems are men­aced by prac­tices that prove dev­as­tat­ing and impov­er­ish even to the point of star­va­tion peo­ples who already suf­fer from dis­crim­i­na­tion and con­flict. The recent­ly con­clud­ed syn­odal assem­bly was an extra­or­di­nary occa­sion for rec­i­p­ro­cal lis­ten­ing and a grow­ing real­iza­tion that in meet­ing these chal­lenges the mis­sion of the Church is clear.

To all those who acknowl­edge the effects of a neg­a­tive par­a­digm of devel­op­ment, I would like to recall the Holy Father’s recent mes­sage to Pop­u­lar Move­ments: “You have moved beyond pas­siv­i­ty and pes­simism. Do not give in now to pain or res­ig­na­tion. You were unwill­ing to be docile vic­tims, but saw your­self as a group, active par­tic­i­pants in his­to­ry. This is per­haps your most impor­tant con­tri­bu­tion: you did not step back, but took the lead. Do not let your­selves be intim­i­dat­ed, move for­ward”.^[1] In this way, the Church would like fish­ers through­out the world to sense her accom­pa­ni­ment and support.

A tech­no­log­i­cal devel­op­ment can exist and be pur­sued that is capa­ble of uphold­ing the dig­ni­ty and secu­ri­ty of labour, and restor­ing a bal­ance between indi­vid­u­als, work and the envi­ron­ment. Law­mak­ers, too, can stand back from the great inter­ests of a few and inter­vene on behalf of small com­mu­ni­ties, fam­i­ly busi­ness­es and orga­ni­za­tions of fish­ers who, giv­en suit­able assur­ances, are in a posi­tion to con­tribute more direct­ly and effec­tive­ly to the com­mon good. For theirs is a voca­tion to care for the sea, which must be pro­tect­ed with­in the purview of an inte­gral, wide­spread and peo­ple-ori­ent­ed ecol­o­gy. This sen­si­tiv­i­ty ful­ly makes fish­ers part of the mem­bers of the Body of Christ who coop­er­ate in the build­ing of a world more faith­ful to God’s dreams.

As men and women of hope, let us remem­ber the potent silence of prayer, which must always accom­pa­ny our efforts on behalf of jus­tice. Again, Pope Fran­cis has said: “I pray that the eco­nom­i­cal­ly pow­er­ful will come out of their iso­la­tion, reject the false secu­ri­ty of mon­ey and be open to shar­ing the goods that are des­tined for all because they come from cre­ation. All goods come from there and the goods of cre­ation are des­tined for all. It is dif­fi­cult for this to hap­pen. It is dif­fi­cult, but for God noth­ing is impos­si­ble”.^[2] This is also our prayer, as we entrust to the inter­ces­sion of Mary, Star of the Sea, the con­cerns and aspi­ra­tions of fish­ers and all those who ben­e­fit from their work.

Card. Michael Czerny S.J.
Pre­fect

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^[1] Encounter with Pop­u­lar Move­ments spon­sored by the Dicas­t­ery for Pro­mot­ing Inte­gral Human devel­op­ment, 20 Sep­tem­ber 2024.

^[2] Ibid.