The “Catholic School for Nuclear Power Phase-out” starts with 9 weeks course

A 9-week course of the Catholic teachings on nuclear power phase-out, entitled “Catholic School for Nuclear Power Phase-out” began with the opening Mass at the Catholic Center in Myeong-dong on September 17, 2014.

This course was prepared by the Subcommittee for Environment under the CBCK Committee for Justice & Peace (President: Most Rev. Matthias Ri Iong-hoon) to inform the faithful with the teachings of the Catholic Church on nuclear technology.

In his homily, Rev. Stephan Yang Ki-suk, the Secretary of the Subcommittee for Environment, said that “God will ultimately restore this world according to His will, no matter how we human beings destroy it. It matters that those who destroy the environments or overlook their acts, including people who just follow them not knowing what will cause their behaviors, all of them cannot help but take the greatest responsibility.”

In the first lecture after the Mass, Rev. Yang said that the faithful have responsibility to transfer the precious heritage of nature entrusted by God to the future generations, pointing out the seriousness of radioactive contamination due to the explosion of the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan and evil effect of Four Major Rivers Project of Korea.

In this lecture with the theme “Ecological civilization and our responsibility to carry out as believers”, he attributed the ecological crisis of today to several tendances such as, anthropocentricism, techno-centered perspective and scientism, consumption-oriented life style, human-nature dichotomy. He stressed that “the gifts of ecosystem are meant to promote the common good as the resources for the entire humanity.”

This course for nuclear power phase-out continues to be held on every Wednesday evening for 9 weeks until November 11, 2014 with many themes such as “New Logic and Practices against Ecological Crisis”, “Principle and Structure of Nuclear Power”, “Discrimination and Conflicts over the Nuclear Power Plants in the World”, “The Route of the Radiation Exposure of the Koreans”, “Alternative energy for the Nuclear Power Phase-out”, “Nuclear Technology and Teachings of the Church”. This course includes on-sight exposure to the site of high-voltage electric power transmission towers in Milyang, South Gyeongsang Province, and to a nuclear power plant with outdated reactors.