Climate Change

Gratitude for all God’s gifts is at the heart of Ignatian spirituality.  Our appreciation of the beauty of nature and our interconnectedness with all creation calls us to a focussed care for all living things.  Our biblical understanding of justice and relationships, and tenets of Catholic Social Teaching focus our heads, hearts and hands on careful stewardship of creation.  Increasingly we are attuned to the deep connection our Indigenous sisters and brothers share with the earth and the nourishment of a spirituality that is connected with all creation.  Our response to our fragile planet is a spiritual imperative, not simply a form of social activism. 

In 2014 the global Institute articulated Five Calls (Link to pdf), including the call ‘to live sustainably, discerning what is enough.’  A year later Pope Francis promulgated his call to integral ecology is his ground-breaking encyclical Laudato Sí. The Province takes seriously the pleas for ecological conversion in Laudato Sí.  Many of the Sustainable Development Goals relate directly to integral ecology; an integrated approach to environmental and social justice that highlights the bond between humans and the natural world.  The CJ/IBVM desk at the United Nations encourages us to reflect critically on the link between the poverty of the earth and the poverty of so many of our sisters and brothers.  Responses of Mary Ward’s Institute make heartening reading!   

Our communities, schools and ministries are responding to climate change in many creative ways:  going plastic-free, committing to a Province carbon offset scheme of tree-planting, adopting environmentally-friendly heating and cooling measures, moving toward divestment in fossil fuels.  We petition, protest and pray; we acknowledge that our actions today have a huge impact on the future of all God’s creation.  

Resources 

• Laudato Si 
• Catholic Social Teaching and Climate Change 
• Ecological Examen  
• Catholic Earthcare Australia  
• World Environment Day  
• Global World Environment Day
• International Mother Earth Day  
• World Oceans Day  
• IBVM at the UN – Issues  
• UN Climate Change Newsletter – Update No 40   
• Season of Creation
• Sandie Cornish Blog
• A Unified Response to Climate Change
• Lighting India’s Slums
• Prayers to Care for Creation
• Week 2 Advent Prayer 2019
• Creation Prayers