In view of the concerns of so many throughout the world, the devastation caused by changes in patterns of life and natural disasters, it is time for our catholic communities to examine the teachings of our Church and develop plans of action for the enhancement of the earth and protection of all created beings.
On this web page, in the spirit of the Laudato Si’, we hope to share the teachings of our Church as they are acted upon in the Archdiocese, our parishes, and diverse ecclesial movements. It is a true human tragedy when few individuals look upon our times and see everything through the prism of politics. They forget the Divine Mandate given to us by God from the beginning in which He proclaimed all that was created was good and each person is a steward of the gift of Creation.
Laudate Deum
“Praise God for all his creatures!”
This was the message that Saint Francis of Assisi proclaimed by his life, his canticles and all his actions.
In this way, he accepted the invitation of the biblical Psalms and reflected the sensitivity of Jesus before the creatures of his Father: “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these” (Mt 6:28-29). “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten in God’s sight” (Lk 12:6).
How can we not admire this tenderness of Jesus for all the beings that accompany us along the way!
Events
Care for God’s Creation this Lent
The Church of St. Francis Xavier’s Environment Ministry, NYC has created a free downloadable calendar to use with your family this Lent to encourage a greater connection to care for God’s creation.
Film Screening: We’re All Plastic People Now
St. Ignatius Loyola Laudato Si’ Ministry presents the documentary We’re All Plastic People Now, an Emmy Award-winning documentary introduced by Ted Danson and featured at the 2024 Santa Fe Film Festival.
Join the parish of St. Ignatius Loyola Laudato Si’ Ministry, along with Metro New York Catholic Climate Movement in Wallace Hall, St. Ignatius, 980 Park Ave. on Sunday, March 9 at 1 pm to view this documentary and enjoy refreshments.
St. Ignatius Loyola | Wallace Hall
980 Park Ave.
New York, New York 10028
Kristin Shevis from the Beyond Plastics nationwide project based at Bennington College in Vermont, and a St. Francis Xavier parishioner, will engage us in a conversation after the film.
GET INVOLVED
GREEN TEAM: Seeking Volunteers
The Archdiocese of New York’s Energy Department is currently seeking candidates for our newly established Green Team. This team of volunteers will help devise solutions for sustainable environmental goals for use at the parish or community or organizational levels. Green Team members will have access to a series of developmental training sessions that will build their knowledge.
Green Team members are encouraged to create sustainable initiatives of interest to themselves or their community -for example: Recycling, Composting, Community Gardens, Energy Efficiency, etc. Most of all we will join together our collective experiences and encourage and support one another as we Care for Our Common Home.
Please express your interest by filling out this form: GREEN TEAM Volunteer interest form
RESOURCES
Make the most of this Season of Creation. Read Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato si’ on care for our common home, and learn more about Fratelli tutti here. Take action with the Laudato Si’ Movement, Catholic Climate Covenant, or the Ignatian Solidarity Network. Learn more about the Season of Creation here. Share the following graphics on your social platforms.
Care of God’s Creation Resources from Catholic Relief Services:
Learn about St. Francis Xavier Laudato Si’ 3-year Climate Action Plan unveiled in 2022.
CARE OF CREATION TIPS
There are many ways to make a difference in your life and your environment. Why not incorporate some of the suggestions below into your daily routine and see what changes you can make?
You are invited to download and share these graphics with your community, on your social media platforms. Thank you for your kind consideration!
NEWS
The movie The Letter about the Laudato Si’, Pope Francis’ encyclical on climate change and ecology, offers a transformative new vision of environmental protection. The film, made in cooperation with the Vatican is available for free through a partnership with YouTube.
The United Nations will convene their annual meeting on climate, COP28, on November 30, 2023, in Dubai
In advance of the meeting, Archbishop Borys Gudziak of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, and Bishop A. Elias Zaidan of the Maronite Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on International Justice and Peace, released the following statement:
“We pray for all leaders and participants of COP28 as they work to care for our climate. As Pope Francis emphasized in Laudate Deum, the climate crisis is an opportunity to reconfigure international relations toward the common good, ‘demonstrat[ing] the nobility of politics,’ where, as brothers and sisters all, we can achieve ‘a decisive acceleration of energy transition’ (nos. 60, 54).”
Read more via The Good Newsroom: COP 28: U.S. Bishops Call for International Climate Policies that Promote Justice
INSPIRATION
October 4th marked the close of the annual celebration of the Season of Creation at Iona University.
St. Francis Xavier Environment Ministry hosted a Clean Up Day at Glick Park next to the East River.
ABOUT
It might come as a surprise to some but religious leaders and theologians have been recognizing in our Catholic Social Teaching a clear direction with a common purpose. The United Nations took up issues of the environment declaring a worldwide celebration of a Day for the Environment in 1973. Two years previous, Saint Pope Paul VI noting the eightieth anniversary of the “Rerum Novarum” of Leo XIII wrote: “Man is suddenly becoming aware that by an ill-conceived considered exploitation of nature he risks destroying it…Not only is the material environment becoming a permanent menace—pollution and refuse, new illness and absolute destructive capacity—but the human framework is no longer under man’s control, thus creating an environment for tomorrow which may be intolerable.” (21)
This twentieth-century prophet was warning us about what we are now experiencing throughout many nations, including our own. Pandemics have plagued our societies, settled cities have suffered the ravages of “storms of the century”, wars are being fought over the lack of resources, and men, women, and children have had to flee violent uprisings and cease to exist where they have dwelt for millennia. The dignity of humanity is not seen as God’s gift but is defined on the basis of the amount of power possessed, the size of houses built, the value of material things possessed, and most recently the numbers of weapons had to defend those very signs of affluence.
What Pope Paul declared has been repeated time and again by his successors: Saint Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, and most recently, Pope Francis. Each has defined for us a path back to righteousness which Jesus proclaimed again and again from the Sermon on the Mount to His vision of the final judgment as written in Matthew’s Gospel.