tvc.dsj.org | June 25, 2019
IN THE CHURCH
5
California Catholic Bishops Issue Call to Protect Our Common Home
On Fourth Anniversary of Pope Francis’ Encyclical on Caring for the Earth,
Bishops Celebrate Beauty of California While Warning of the Perils Facing Our Home
SACRAMENTO, CA – Cherishing
the many natural blessings of the
Golden State while expressing grow-
ing concern with escalating threats
to our world, the Catholic Bishops
of California have issued a pastoral
statement calling on all people to “con-
tribute to the ecological well-being of
our state.”
“We are publishing our Pastoral
Statement on the fourth anniversary
of Laudato Si’ with a two-fold vision in
mind,” say the Bishops: “To animate
and energize the implementation in
California of what Laudato Si’ calls us
to do, and to offer a dynamic teach-
ing and evangelization tool for our
Catholic faith community and beyond,
especially for young people.”
In God Calls Us All to Care for Our
Common Home, the Bishops challenge
the people of California to appreciate
the beauty of the state and to apply
– both individually and collectively
– the teachings of Laudato Si’ in safe-
guarding our natural gifts.
The statement emphasizes the
Catholic concept of the common good
– “the sum total of social conditions
that allow us to access the resources
and services necessary for a dignified
life” -- in relationship to the environ-
ment and the people of California.
It follows by building on the con-
cept of “integral ecology” first ex-
plored be Saint Pope John Paul II and
expanded upon by Pope Francis. The
teaching emphasizes that stewardship
of nature must first be at the service
of advancing the good of all people
in their environmental, economic and
cultural dimensions.
God Calls Us All to Care for Our Com-
mon Home, most importantly, aims to
encourage the practical applications of
these teaching.
In the second section, the California
Catholic Conference of Bishops chal-
lenge different groups to do their part:
• Pastoral leaders and Catholic
institutions are encouraged to
share practical tools of teaching
that proclaim the encyclical’s
themes.
• The Bishops ask youth and
young adults to find opportuni-
ties to pray in natural surround-
ings and initiate conversations
with older adults about environ-
mental protection.
• Parents, teachers, and cat-
echists are encouraged to help
create an environmental con-
sciousness and literacy that
promotes t he principles of
Laudato Si’ in every family’s
lifestyle.
• The statement suggests that
public officials enact policies
that improve air quality, reduce
polluting gases, strengthen
water systems, protect precious
ecosystems, and support the
health of our citizens.
• Leaders in business are encour-
aged to consider to what extent
their business enterprises, its
products, and its marketing
meet genuine human needs and
promotes the common good.
• The Bishops suggest that those
who work the land and care for
it reflect on how their work can
best balance economic produc-
tion and environmental protec-
tion with attention to greater
sustainability.
• The statement calls on artists
and innovators to find new
ways to highlight the beauty of
creation and inspire a culture
of ecological and human care in
the light of the moral applica-
tions of the Pope’s encyclical.
Finally, echoing Laudato Si’, the
Bishops conclude with a call to a spiri-
tual conversion that respects our com-
mon home and cares for all, especially
the poor and vulnerable.
“Ecological conversion challenges
us to advance in culture, to grow
spiritually, and to be better educated
about the world entrusted by God to
our care. The heavens and the earth
belong to God, but we have been called
to be good stewards.”
For more information please visit
www.cacatholic.org.
How Long Will it Take to Heed the Message of Laudato Si’?
By Katia Reeves, member,
Stewards of Our Common Home,
Diocese of San Jose
It has been four years since Pope
Francis published the encyclical Lau-
dato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home.
Facing the world’s environmental de-
terioration, the Holy Father addresses
“every person living on this planet.”
Pope Francis states: “The urgent chal-
lenge to protect our common home
includes a concern to bring the whole
human family together to seek a sus-
tainable and integral development, for
we know that things can change.” LS 13
Pope Francis lays out the message of
Laudato Si’: “I will then attempt to get
to the roots of the present situation, so
as to consider not only the symptoms
but also its deepest causes.” LS 15 The
call to action is based on the Gospel of
Creation. “Each community can take
from the bounty of the earth whatever
it needs for subsistence, but also has the
duty to protect the Earth and ensure its
fruitfulness for coming generations.”
LS 67 “We fail to see the deepest roots
of our present failures, which have to
do with the direction, goals, meaning
and social implications of technological
and economic growth.” LS 109
“Unless citizens control
political power – national,
regional, and municipal
– it will not be possible
to control damage to the
environment.”
We are facing public policies and
mindsets, administrative and executive
orders, which are weakening the cor-
rective measures we once had. If these
actions continue, we face the prospect
of severe and irreparable harm: mass
migrations, premature deaths, longer
storms, floods, and hurricanes, unliv-
able temperatures, rising seas, wars
over scarce but necessary resources
like water and food. “Unless citizens
control political power – national,
regional, and municipal – it will not
be possible to control damage to the
environment.” (LS 179)
The world’s youth, impatient with
the lack of effective action from gov-
ernments to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions, have taken to world-wide
strikes. The Laudato Si’ Generation,
organized for the fourth anniversary
of the encyclical, rallies youth around
the world demanding change.
On May 27, Pope Francis addressed
a Vatican climate change conference
sponsored by the Pontifical Academy
of Sciences for finance ministers from
around the world. He stated: “If the
world is to win the fight against climate
change, its leaders must stop profit-
ing from fossil fuels that threaten the
survival and well-being of the planet
and its inhabitants.” He added: “We
continue along old paths because we
are trapped by our faulty account-
ing and by the corruption of vested
interests. We still reckon as profit that
which threatens our very survival.”
Pope Francis also said to the finance
ministers: “It is my prayerful hope that,
as stewards of the world’s finances, you
will agree upon a common plan that
accords with climate science, the latest
in clean energy engineering and, above
all, the ethics of human dignity.”
In Laudato Si’, Pope Francis inspires
us: “Living our vocation to be protec-
tors of God’s handiwork is essential to
a life of virtue; it is not an optional or
a secondary aspect of our Christian
experience.” (LS 217)
For add it ion a l i n for mat ion
please contact Marita Grudzen at
[email protected] or Katia
Reeves at [email protected].
A Prayer for Our Environment
from Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’
All-powerful God,
you are present in the whole universe
and in the smallest of your creatures.
You embrace with your tenderness
all that exists.
Pour out upon us
the power of your love,
that we may protect life and beauty.
Fill us with peace, that we may live as
brothers and sisters, harming no one.
O God of the poor,
help us to rescue the abandoned and
forgotten of this earth,
so precious in your eyes.
Bring healing to our lives,
that we may protect the
world and not prey on it,
that we may sow beauty,
not pollution and destruction.
Touch the hearts of those
who look only for gain at the expense
of the poor and the earth.
Teach us to discover the worth of
each thing, to be filled with awe and
contemplation, to recognize that we are
profoundly united with every
creature as we journey towards
your infinite light.
We thank you for being
with us each day.
Encourage us, we pray, in our struggle
for justice, love and peace.