There is a lot of talk, now, about a food crisis in the world. Croplands are being used to grow fuel for cars vs. food for people. That’s wrong. But if you also don’t want to support building new refineries, or drilling in wildnerness, the ocean or high risk areas, what do you do? With the price of gas going up, people are going to push for alternatives.
I don’t know what we can do about that, except to stop driving as much, and walk, bike or take mass transit. That works if people are willing to do without, are in good enough physical condition to do so, or don’t mind experiencing a lot of inconvenience. Given that, what kind of success rate can we expect? How many people will turn off their air conditioner in July?
I priced out Lori and I taking the train or bus to our weekend house vs. driving. It costs us $40 a weekend for gas for our Toyota Coralla. It would cost us $80 to take the bus or a train.
Going from a starch and meat diet to a vegetables and a little chicken or fish diet has also seen our food bills go up. A lot. Organic is great, but it is also priced a lot higher than vegetables in the bin. Now, we are paying to put into practice environmental ethics, and we feel the pinch, even in our household.
People that are poor, unemployed, struggling or on a fixed income, can hardly afford to pay for the basics and necessities, much less enviromentally ethical products and services.
What is a Catholic environmentalist to do? There are so many conflicting issues I don’t know what to think much less what to prioritize for action.
Bill Griffin, CSX, has researched the global food crisis for the Center of Concern. His paper is designed to provide a clear overview of the current food crisis and the conflicting economic forces at work behind the scenes. I hope it will help me clarify what steps I can take to help on both the food and fuel fronts.
Mark Stoll, a history professor at Texas Tech University, in Lubbock, Texas, argues that Catholics have not been prominent environmentalists in the past because their religious worldview encouraged a sense of sacredness among a community of people rather than with nature.
In a paper entitled The Catholic Ethic and the Spirit of Environmentalism, Stoll writes, “Religiously-minded Catholics dedicated themselves in service to the Church, or to the poor, or to the unconverted - to society, in other words…and by and large left nature writing to Protestants, alone in the woods with their God.” While Catholics have always appreciated the natural world, their passion for ecology has usually been an afterthought to their commitment to social concerns.
But, as Stoll points out, ecology is becoming a social concern. In his statement for the World Day of Peace in 1990, Pope John Paul II said, “the ecological crisis is a moral issue (that) has assumed such proportions as to be the responsibility of everyone.” In response, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued Renewing the Earth, in which they insist that “the ecological problem is intimately connected to justice for the poor.”
“How,” they ask, “may we apply our social teaching, with its emphasis on the life and dignity of the human person, to the challenge of protecting the earth, our common home?”
This weekend workshop will explore ways we understand the spirituality of human health and sacred creation.
Participants will reflect on the work of Thomas Berry, Sandra Schneiders, the World Council of Churches and others in consideration of peace, creation and the environment. Berry has written “Human health is a sub-system of Earth’s health. You cannot have well humans on a sick planet.” The featured speaker is Dennis Patrick O’Hara, DC, ND, Ph.D., a professor of ethics and eco-theology at St. Michael’s College.
The program will be held at Calvary Retreat Center, located 40 minutes west of Boston. Offering: $225, which includes room, program and meals.
Joan Brown, OSF wrote an inspiring article for U.S. Catholic Magazine on the environment. It discussed the background and focus for her Ecology Ministry, and how love of creation has deep roots in our Catholic spiritual tradition. 
“One night when I was six years old, while walking outdoors before bed, I gazed at the sky and found myself wrapped in the vast mantle of stars, the Milky Way. Standing in awe, my body felt both small and large. In that instant I felt God.”
“The natural world has always taught us about God. Thirteenth-century mystic Meister Eckhardt said, ‘Creation is a revelation of God, a home for God, a temple for God.’ But with the growth of industrialization, technology, materialism, and consumerism, we have been lulled to sleep, forgetting who we are and our place on earth.”
“Our Catholic and Christian spiritual tradition–its saints, sacramentality, and practices–can help us to navigate this new challenge. In fact, the ecological crisis may very well lead us into a deeper relationship with God and help awaken us to the true meaning of life, which is loving all that exists.”
“Passionist Father Thomas Berry, the most influential Catholic eco-theologian, speaks of this time in history as a moment of grace, yet because of the urgency of this crisis, the transformation of our understanding of who we are must take place in a short period. Celebrating the wonders around us is part of our vocation to love and serve God and might very well be the path that can transform our lifestyles from consumerism to sustainability.”
Joan Brown directs efforts with the faith community through her work in Ecology Ministry. She is a Sister of the Rochester, Minnesota Franciscans; President of the Partnership for Earth Spirituality in Albuquerque, New Mexico; serves on the board of the National Catholic Rural Life Conference; Vice President of New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light (NMIPL) and chairs the NMIPL’s education committee.
Her work entails organizing, education, outreach, retreats and advocacy around water, climate change and sustainable living. Brown is the co-founder of Tierra Madre, a sustainable and self-help strawbale community for people of low income in Sunland Park, New Mexico.
Joan Brown, OSF is one of those people who makes you feel proud to be Catholic. Hers is a prophetic ministry for this century.
“In past elections, voting guides for Catholics, written from both ends of the political spectrum, have focused on hot button issues like abortion, gay marriage, war and economic justice. The environment, if mentioned at all, has been an afterthought. But the increasing urgency of climate change and its potential to generate catastrophic consequences for human life and civilization make this election different. This time, the environment is front and center.”
“The environment has long been a poor stepchild within Christian theology, and the Catholic Church is no exception. While Catholic social teaching has not wholly ignored the issue, the major social encyclicals of the twentieth century largely failed to tackle the question of our obligations toward the Earth. Although by no means hostile to environmentalism, Catholic social teaching consistently failed to place ecological concerns at the center of the church’s attention. Recent years, however, have seen signs of a shift in attitudes…”
Read the rest of this great article by Eduardo Penalver in Commonweal.
Catholics in Waterloo, Iowa have Cool Congregations.
Cool Congregations is an education and stewardship program designed to help faith communities and people of faith recognize and respond to their responsibility for the care of God’s creation.
In Iowa, Cool Congregations is sponsored by Iowa Interfaith Power and Light, an affiliate of the Interfaith Power and Light network created by The Regeneration Project. Iowa Interfaith Power and Light is a joint initiative of Christian, Jewish and other faith communities in Iowa, including the Catholic diocese of Des Moines and the National Catholic Rural Life Conference.
The Iowa project is one of 25 state projects organized by The Regeneration Project to educate faith communities about global warming, promote renewal energy, energy efficiency and conservation.
Cool Congregations helps individuals, families and congregations become better steward’s of God’s creation. Cool Congregations participants learn how to reduce their contribution to global warming by implementing a wide range of practical (and in many cases inexpensive) action which reduce carbon dioxide emissions, reduce consumption of fossil fuels, improve energy efficiency, and reduce overall energy use.
The net result is that we reduce our contribution to global warming, and the devastating social, economic and environmental impact which it has, especially on the poor and marginalized who can least afford it.
Kudos to the folks in Waterloo.
Sisters across North America are conducting energy audits of their buildings and renovating them using earth-friendly standards, purchasing recycled paper products and nontoxic cleaning products, chosing hybrid cars for their fleets, sod-busting their land to restore native wetland or prairie, and supporting sustainable agriculture by choosing organic or locally sourced food over standard grocery fare.
“As Al Gore would say, it is a moral issue to reduce our carbon footprint today,” said Sr. Corinne Wright, environmental initatives manager for the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia, whose Aston, PA, complex including a 150-year-old motherhouse and Red Hill Farm, runs on clean energy. “It is a choice that is somewhat more expensive. We are sacrificing in other ways so we make less of a footprint..I guess it boils down to conscious living.”
When German settlers arrived in Pennsylvania in the 1700s they brought a tradition known as Candlemas day. Candlemas is also associated with the pagan holiday of Imbrolc, which heralds the coming of spring.
German folklore held that on Candlemas day, if a hedgehog saw its shadow, there would be six more weeks of winter. When they migrated to the United States, there were no hedgehogs. The local Indians had great respect for the groundhog which they called “Wojac” (where we get the name “woodchuck”) which they considered an ancestor. So the tradition was changed from a hedgehog to a woodchuck or groundhog.
“Groundhog Day” has been celebrated for a long time in the United States. Back on February 4, 1841, a Morgantown, PA shopkeeper named James Morris wrote in his diary..”Last Tuesday, the 2nd, was Candlemas Day, the day on which, according to the Germans, the Groundhog peeps out of his winter quarters and if he sees his shadow he pops back for another six weeks nap, but if the day be cloudy he remains out, as the weather is to be moderate.”
This morning Punxsutawney Phil, our official groundhog, predicted six more weeks of winter. 
“Green Canticle” will report and comment on how Catholics around the world are making the protection of the environment and the wise use of resources a part of the practice of their faith. It will also discuss the role of nature in ancient and modern Catholic spirituality.
Catholic Social Teaching emphasizes that we have the responsibility to “care for creation” by taking an active role in safeguarding the poor, the marginalized, and the health of the planet from the worse excesses of economic competition, including warfare.
The inspiration for the name of this blog came from several places.
Green is the liturgical color of life and renewal. It is also the color commonly used to designate something as environmentally-friendly.
Prayer to God, whether petition or praise, is often chanted or sung. St. Augustine’s comment, “To sing is to pray twice;” and especially, the “Canticle of the Sun” by St. Francis of Assisi, is also integral to its purpose.
St. Francis’ Canticle finds and praises God through all the elements of Nature. He expresses our admiration and kinship, and our joy in being part of it all.
