Faith in the Family

I have just spent a very interesting afternoon with a very diverse group of people, over 350 of them! Amongst the countries represented in our group are Kenya, Peru, USA, Uganda, India, Australia, Nigeria, Philippines, Burundi, Vietnam, Pakistan, Britain, Nicaragua and Ireland!  We are doing online training as Laudato Si’ Animators with the Global Catholic Climate Movement.

The aim of the training is to become more familiar with the writings of Pope Francis in Laudato Si’ and then try to increase awareness of Pope Francis’ message and the need for climate action in our own communities. The first week focused on the science of climate change. I struggled a little with the technical and scientific details of it but what really had an impact upon me was an input by Joanna Sustento from the Philippines. In the super typhoon Haiyan in 2013 Joanna lost her mother, father, brother, sister-in-law and three-year-old nephew. The bodies of her father and nephew were never found.

As Joanna so powerfully said, in the Philippines they don’t have the luxury of denying or debating climate change; they are living – and dying – with the reality of it. I am conscious, listening to the experience of people from around the world, that here in Ireland we are experiencing relatively minor effects of climate change. We have had flooding and more storms but nothing in comparison to many developing countries. That doesn’t mean we can ignore the reality for others.

In the second week Fr Joshtrom Kureethadam from the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development spoke to us about how our faith and Catholic Social Teaching invite and indeed urge us to engage with these challenging issues of “the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor”. What I find so energising about all of this is the very clear statement, coming from Pope Francis and echoed by Fr Joshtrum that our lives as Christians are intimately connected with the well-being of each other and of creation.

We are invited to personal and communal conversion. Pope Francis is clear: “Living our vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or secondary aspect of our Christian experience.” (Laudato Si’ 217). We are invited to contemplate the Word of God in scripture and the Word of God in creation, to give glory to God, to work for justice, to engage in dialogue. God calls each of us in a personal way, according to our gifts and our circumstances. We each have a part to play.

But that conversion – that realisation that the way we live, the way we construct society, the way we consume and use the earth’s resources is contributing to the climate crisis – also needs to be communal. How as family, and as parish, do we respond to the challenges? How do we begin? That is a question I put to Amy WoolamEchererria International Coordinator for Justice and Peace with the Missionary Society of St Columba who was our speaker today. Amy suggested that we don’t begin with any big plan. Just gather a group of interested people and begin with a simple question, “Can you remember a time or a place where you felt particularly connected to the natural world?”

The Season of Creation is happening from 1 September to 4 October. Throughout the month long celebrations the world’s 2.2 million Christians are invited to come together to care for our common home.  You can find great resources for parishes on the website seasonofcreation.org – a Laudato Si’ Mass, Holy Hour and Adoration liturgies, prayer resources and more. Trócaire also have resources on trocaire.org for parishes and families. We may not be gathering as much in our parishes at the moment but we could explore many of these ideas around our kitchen tables. Change can begin at home.  These past months have given many of us the opportunity to reconnect with nature. We have planted the seed of conversion – now let’s help it grow.