By Northwest Catholic
November 3, 2022
With the decline of salmon in the Lower Snake River region, the impact on Native people and the call of Pope Francis to care for creation, the state’s bishops have issued a statement urging a holistic plan for the region that “serves the common good.”
Any plan should take into account “care for God’s creation, treaties and rights of the Original Peoples of Washington state, and those who live and work in the Lower Snake River region,” the five bishops said in their statement, titled “Caring for Creation and the Common Good in the Lower Snake River Region.”
The statement, which quotes from Pope Francis’ environmental encyclical, Laudato Si’, is signed by Archbishop Paul D. Etienne of Seattle, Bishop Joseph J. Tyson of Yakima, Bishop Thomas A. Daly of Spokane and Seattle Auxiliary Bishops Eusebio Elizondo and Frank Schuster.
Archbishop Etienne presented a preview of the statement to Indigenous people gathered for a Salmon Seas celebration in Seattle Oct. 30.
“We share your desire to care for our common home and we welcome opportunities to bring together communities to address concerns, including the decline of salmon in our region,” Archbishop Etienne said.
The gathering was part of the first International Indigenous Salmon Seas Symposium sponsored by Se’Si’Le (pronounced saw-see-lah), a nonprofit that “introduces indigenous spiritual law into the mainstream conversation about climate change and the environment.”
The bishops’ letter acknowledges that the decline in the salmon population and the loss of original habitat are a threat “to the spiritual lifeways of the Original Peoples of the Northwest.”
Read the rest of the article here