Laudato Si In Action
-
The Season of Creation
On September 1, Pope Francis released a message at the start of the Season of Creation: This season of increased prayer and effort on behalf of our common home begins today, 1 September, the World Day of Prayer for the… Continue reading
-
Water, the Source of Life
I think we can all agree that water is essential to life; without it, the vast majority of life will perish, including people. Pope Francis writes specifically about water in Laudato Si: …as the quality of available water is constantly… Continue reading
-
Is climate change for real?
Climate change has been in the newspapers, on television news programs, and internet news sites a lot lately. Just in the past few weeks we have read about record heat in Europe, the melting of glaciers in Iceland, Greenland, and… Continue reading
-
Measuring progress
Laudato Si was released in May 2015. Since that time, progress on reducing our global climate footprint and our trajectory towards an irreversible climate catastrophe has been mixed at best. Shortly after Laudato Si’s release, the Paris Agreement committed most… Continue reading
-
Not Just an Encyclical for the Environment
Papal encyclicals take their name from the latin encyclius, or circle. Originally, the name came from the fact that an encyclical was a letter that circulated from the Holy Father to bishops, and then to priests, and finally to all… Continue reading
-
The Pressure to Consume
In Laudato Si, Pope Francis speaks of rampant consumerism: Since the market tends to promote extreme consumerism in an effort to sell its products, people can easily get caught up in a whirlwind of needless buying and spending. Do you… Continue reading
-
An Ecological Conversion is Needed
In Chapter Six of Laudato Si, Pope Francis speaks powerfully about the need for an “ecological conversion”. “The external deserts in the world are growing, because the internal deserts have become so vast”. For this reason, the ecological crisis is… Continue reading
-
Make Change Stick with a System
Last week, I mentioned how Pope Francis was calling to us action on climate change. I also wrote how to go about making public commitments. Now it’s time to convert those commitments into sustained action. But how? Perhaps, it’s time… Continue reading
-
Commit to Change!
In Chapter Six of Laudato Si, Pope Francis writes: We are always capable of going out of ourselves towards the other. Unless we do this, other creatures will not be recognized for their true worth; we are unconcerned about caring… Continue reading
-
The Beauty of Nature
In the Introduction of Laudato Si, Pope Francis points to the beauty of nature: Saint Francis, faithful to Scripture, invites us to see nature as a magnificent book in which God speaks to us and grants us a glimpse of… Continue reading
Saint Francis of Assisi Ministry 