Environmental Justice
Catholic focus on Environmental Justice grows from concern for God’s gift of creation and from realization of the threats to human life, health and dignity from environmental degradation, especially among children, the poor, and the marginalized. Following a 1990 address by Pope John Paul II, The Ecological Crisis: A Common Responsibility, the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops issued a pastoral letter, Renewing the Earth, calling all Catholics to reflection and action on environmental justice, and became a founding member, with Protestant and Jewish national organizations, of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment.
Programs & Resources for Parishes from the
Archdiocesan Office of Urban Affairs
Climate Change resources.
“St. Francis/Caring for Creation” packet: prayer services, activity suggestions, educational materials, and resource information.
Speaker ( with video or overheads) on connections between Respecting Life, children’s environmental health problems, and stewardship of the environment in Connecticut.
CASE (Catholic Coalition for Children' and a Safe Environment) resources. CASE educates and mobilizes the Catholic community to ensure that all children, born and unborn, have the opportunity to grow up in a healthy and safe environment.
Catholic Youth environmental program information and resources, in collaboration with the Office of Religious Education.
Workshop exploring human and environmental contributions to Eucharist as “fruit of the earth and work of human hands” using earth history, ecology, and biblical images.
5 Videos for
adults, youth or children, on the connections between scripture, Catholic social
teaching, care of creation, respecting life, and environmental justice; each
with self-facilitating prayer and discussion program, plus follow-up activity
information. (borrow videos from OUA)
Center/Edge Project: A statewide educational effort to help citizens understand the social, economic, and environmental effects, costs, and causes of “urban sprawl”.
Prayer/celebration/service ideas for Feast of St. Francis; Earth Day; Thanksgiving; local park, beach, or other cleanup day; watershed or river event.
Advocacy information for supporting legislation on issues such as: lead paint poisoning prevention and other children’s health issues, brownfields remediation and reuse, clean air.
Through the Action for Justice Network, in collaboration with regional and statewide coalitions.
“To choose life involves rejecting every form of violence:
the violence of poverty and hunger…
of armed conflict… of mindless damage to the environment .”
World Day of Peace 1998, Pope John Paul II
“At its core, the environmental crisis is a moral challenge. It calls us to examine how we use and share the goods of the earth, what we pass on to future generations, and how we live in harmony with God’s creation. The web of life is one. Our mistreatment of the natural world diminishes our own dignity and sacredness… because we are engaging in actions that contradict what it means to be human.
Our tradition calls us to protect the life and dignity of the human person, and it is increasingly clear that this task cannot be separated from the care and defense of all of creation.”
- U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops -
St.
Francis, Respecting Life and Children's Environmental Health
What we
can do as individuals and as a parish?
What are other Dioceses or Catholic Conferences doing?
Cooperative Parish Sharing | Action For Justice | Environmental Justice | Parish Social Ministry
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