Cardinal Nicholas Cheong Jin-suk, the Archbishop of Seoul on Dec. 8
said that the Korean bishops did not say they opposed the government’s
Four Rivers Project.
The cardinal was speaking during press conference to launch his new book God’s Way and Human Way, a collection of essays about the prophets in the Bible, ucanews.com reports.
Cardinal Cheong criticized the bishop’s denouncement in October of
the project as “thoughtless development” in their pastoral guidelines
for environment.
It is “not religious people,” but scientists who should
say whether the project is thoughtless or not, he said.
Earlier, Bishop Peter Kang U-il of Cheju, president of the Catholic
Bishops’ Conference of Korea, in a statement after their biannual
plenary assembly in March said, “All bishops of the Catholic Church in
Korea worry that the project, now being carried out across the country,
will critically damage Korea’s natural environment.”
The government says the 22.2 trillion-won (US$19.13 billion) project
to dredge and dam the country´s four major waterways will prevent
flooding and pollution.
The Four Rivers project, which includes 16 weirs, will be built by 11 of
Korea´s biggest construction companies including Hyundai, Daewoo,
Samsung and steel giant POSCO.
The government says the scheme will not damage the environment. But
environmentalists and Church members have opposed the plans saying it
will cause irrevocable damage to the environment by destroying the
eco-system of four rivers.
SIC: CTH/ASIA