Ecological Examen by Joseph Carver, SJ
All creation reflects the beauty and blessing of God’s image.
Where was I most aware of this today?
Can I identify and pin-point how I made a conscious effort to care for God’s creation during this day?
What challenges or joys do I experience as I recall my care for creation?
How can I repair breaks in my relationship with creation, in my unspoken sense of superiority?
As I imagine tomorrow, I ask for the grace to see the Incarnate Christ in the dynamic interconnections of all Creation.
Conclude with the prayer of Jesus: The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
Pope Francis on Climate Change
Laudato Si’ is Pope Francis encyclical on Care for Creation. Sections 23 to 26 are devoted to climate change. See CARFLEO links to resources on this important encyclical. See also these resources:
Living Out Laudato Si’: A Commentary and Practical Resource for Canadian Catholics.
“Climate Change and New Evidence from Science, Engineering, and Policy.” Meeting with Finance Ministers from Various Nations. Address of His Holiness Pope Francis. Monday, 27 May 2019.
Videos on Climate Change
French version.
From Development and Peace
The featured video features a beautiful depiction of an essay by Nicholas Tesla. Source: http://catholicecology.blogspot.ca/
Canadian Bishops Resources on Ecology including Climate Change
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.
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.
Letter from the CCCB President to the Minister for the Environment and Climate Change (2015)
“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)
Websites
Catholic Climate Covenant n 2006, to address growing ecological awareness and the need to implement Catholic social teaching on ecology within the US Church, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) helped form Catholic Climate Covenant. Inspired by the USCCB’s 2001 statement on climate change, and supported by 18 national partners (which include the USCCB, Catholic Relief Services, Catholic Charities USA, the Catholic Health Association, congregations of religious men and women, and other national organizations), Catholic Climate Covenant helps US Catholics respond to the Church’s call to care for creation and care for the poor.
Global Catholic Climate Movement Pope Francis urges the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics and all people of good will to take urgent action against the injustice of climate change and the ecological crisis, to protect the poor and future generations. His encyclical letter Laudato Si’ is a compelling call to care for our common home, Earth, building on a long history of Catholic teaching. We are building a vibrant movement to respond to Pope Francis’ call.
Laudato Si’ Generation is the youth branch of the Global Catholic Climate Movement, an international network of over 800 Catholic organizations. We’re mobilizing for climate justice to call the Church and the world to action. Pope Francis says that “the environment is on loan to each generation, which must then hand it on to the next.” (Laudato Si’ 159)
Love Your Mother is about our relationship with Mother Earth. It’s the only one we’ve got. In the face of climate change and other global overshoot challenges, our home planet desperately needs our active attention and respect. In particular, this site is dedicated to informing, inspiring and empowering youth to speak up and act up … as well as getting adults to respond quickly, continuously, and comprehensively. It’s our future. It’s our children’s future.
Quotes
“For human beings… to destroy the biological diversity of God’s creation; for human beings to degrade the integrity of the earth by causing changes in its climate, by stripping the earth of its natural forests or destroying its wetlands; for human beings to contaminate the earth’s waters, its land, its air, and its life – these are sins” – Patriarch Bartholomew
School Boards
London Catholic DSB. Climate Change Efforts | Climate Change Home Initiatives | Climate Change Key Facts
Hamilton Wentworth CDSB Students stand up against climate change
Thunder Bay Catholic Schools Kids for Climate Change
See also: Climate Change Learning & Action in Ontario’s Certified EcoSchools
If your school or board has climate change activities, let CARFLEO know at carfleo@live.ca