Building a New Culture – Central Themes in Recent Church Teaching on the Environment (2016)
The CCCB has posted a summary of Catholic Themes on the Environment. From their website …
The world today is rightly concerned about the state of the environment. These concerns are shared by the Church. In his audience with Representatives of the Churches and Ecclesial Communities and of the Different Religions, after being elected to the See of Peter, Pope Francis said that “The Church is likewise conscious of the responsibility which all of us have for our world, for the whole of creation, which we must love and protect.
The Episcopal Commission for Justice and Peace of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) has outlined eight central themes in recent Church teaching on the environment. “These reflect on how a Catholic approach to economic questions, social justice, and environmental questions are necessarily viewed in relation to each other,” the Episcopal Commission states in its text which was released today.
Dioceses, parishes, ecclesial movements and other Catholic organizations will wish to reflect on and discuss the Church’s teaching on the environment. The document is available on the CCCB Website and from CCCB Publications. Copies can be ordered by phone at 1-800-769-1147, by email at publi@cccb.ca or online at http://www.cccbpublications.ca.
“You Love All That Exists… All Things Are Yours, God, Lover of Life…”: A Pastoral Letter on the Christian Ecological Imperative from the Social Affairs Commission, Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishop– October 4, 2003 Feast of St. Francis of Assisi (Patron Saint for Ecology)
Letter from the CCCB President to the Minister for the Environment and Climate Change (2015)
Living Out Laudato Si’: A Commentary and Practical Resource for Canadian Catholics.(2017)
On the occasion of the third World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, the Episcopal Commission for Justice and Peace of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) has published a new resource entitled Living Out Laudato Si’: A Commentary and Practical Resource for Canadian Catholics. The preface of the document, written by the Honourable Graydon Nicholas, CM ONB, former Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick, from the Tobique First Nation, states that this new resource not only presents Catholic Social Teaching but “also raises many of the environmental difficulties facing Canadians today and challenges us to discuss them frankly.” The World day of Prayer for the Care of creation, celebrated on 1 September, was instituted in 2015 by Pope Francis.
The Canadian Catholic Bishops hope this resource would “help Catholics, whether individually or in groups, to engage more deeply with the challenge of Laudato Si’.” The resource is organized into six chapters, each based on one of the six chapters of the encyclical. Each chapter concludes with a series of reflection questions and resources for action, organized under the headings See, Learn, Pray, Act.
The Bishops also express their desire that “this resource may allow both individuals and groups to take up Pope Francis’ invitation to engage in an open and honest conversation about our current crises concerning the environment, our economies and our societies.” They continue in expressing the wish that the use of this simple resource will be “a small part of your journey to a deeper faith and a life of greater solidarity with those who share our common home.”
The 30-page document, which is available only online, can be accessed on the CCCB website at http://www.cccb.ca/site/images/stories/pdf/Living_Out_Laudato_Si_En.pdf.