Rising sea levels in Asia-Pacific island nations are forcing people to leave their homelands in search of better opportunities often in Australia according to Metropolitan Archbishop Ryan Pagente Jimenez of Agaña.
“But leaving home to secure a future in a foreign land is a difficult decision,” said the 53-year-old prelate in a July 4 report by Vatican News.
“There’s a tension because you want to cling to your roots, because this is home,” Archbishop Jimenez said. “On the other hand, you have no choice but to leave, because your home is slowly being covered by water. But you always have that longing for home.”
According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), rising sea levels pose a serious threat to Pacific Island communities.
Residents must now choose between remaining in high-risk areas or relocating to safer, but unfamiliar, places.
For instance, Serua Island in Fiji has been “severely damaged” by coastal erosion and flooding over the past 20 years, the WMO noted in a June 5 press release.
As the seawall collapsed, homes sank into the water, and seawater ruined crops and destroyed soil fertility. The island experienced such severe flooding on two separate occasions that “it was possible to cross the entire island by boat without encountering land,” the WMO stated.
“Villagers are running out of adaptation options,” the report added. “Building seawalls, planting mangroves, and improving drainage systems are no longer viable solutions.”
While the Fijian government has offered to support relocation efforts, many residents choose to stay because of the concept of vanua a term that means not just land, but the profound spiritual and ancestral connection Indigenous communities have with it.
Archbishop Jimenez met privately with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on July 2, just days after receiving the Pallium along with 53 other newly appointed archbishops.
Before the meeting, he received a message from a colleague in Tuvalu, a low-lying island nation in the Pacific, who wrote: “Please tell the Holy Father that we are sinking.”
The meeting focused on climate change in the Asia-Pacific region and the migration it is triggering among communities affected by rising seas.
Archbishop Jimenez also serves as President of the Episcopal Conference of the Pacifici, the world’s largest episcopal conference by land area.
It covers 17 dioceses, jurisdictions, missiones sui iuris, and apostolic prefectures across the Pacific Ocean.
Radio Veritas Asia (RVA), a media platform of the Catholic Church, aims to share Christ. RVA started in 1969 as a continental Catholic radio station to serve Asian countries in their respective local language, thus earning the tag “the Voice of Asian Christianity.” Responding to the emerging context, RVA embraced media platforms to connect with the global Asian audience via its 21 language websites and various social media platforms.
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