U.S. Airmen assigned to the 202nd Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineers (RED HORSE) Squadron, Florida Air National Guard, clear roads in Keaton Beach, Florida, after the landfall of Hurricane Helene, Sept. 27, 2024. (Wikipedia)
By: Laudato Si Movement US Advocacy Working Group
As Hurricane Helene battered the southeast United States, and Hurricane Milton comes barreling towards us, creation is “groaning in travail” through storms, hurricanes, wildfires, heat waves, floods, and droughts across our nation and our world.
Catholics across the nation are responding to this worsening climate crisis with love and hope during this Season of Creation spanning from September 1 (World Day of Prayer for Creation, or “Creation Day”) to October 4, the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi. For St. Francis, loving creation was a means through which he expressed love for our Creator. In the model of Christ and St. Francis, we allow our hearts to break and in that heartbreak, find the courage for bolder action to grow love at a global scale.
Certainly, it can be hard to find hope amid the suffering and seeming indifference. Seven million people die annually because of air pollution and record breaking heat continues to threaten our children and grandparents. Climate anxiety is at an all-time high. The University of Bath reports that more than half of young people believe “humanity is doomed.” Meanwhile, drilling continues to increase and each year, emissions keep breaking worldwide highs.
The lack of adequate response by people in public positions of power to this crisis can be maddening and feel disempowering. Yet, we know from our faith that every voice is sacred. It certainly can seem that some voices have much greater power and reach than others. Those of us “in the pews,” doing our best to be parents, siblings, children, friends, colleagues, and neighbors in our day-to-day lives, can feel that sense of “What can I do, in the face of so much suffering, here and now?”
As followers of Christ, we shift that question to ask: “What does it mean to love in the face of so much suffering?”
Sr Jean Marie Ballard and others organize a Season of Creation booth at their town fair
For many Catholics, love means that we first allow our hearts to break from the suffering of our sisters and brothers and of God’s gift to us of creation, just as Jesus wept for Lazarus. Living in this heartbreak transforms how we see our lives on this earth, our Common Home. We then can take action, more courageous than we previously thought we could, as Jesus did. We discern our actions as individuals and communities in the journey toward the love and hope of Christ, from holding intentional conversations within our parishes to inviting elected officials to understand the consequences of their decisions upon our neighbors and our Common Home. With Jesus leading the way, we speak and act with the courage and boldness it takes to acknowledge the crisis and create change.
These acts of love are cultivating this healing change throughout our nation! Below are just some of the actions:
- “Creation Care Corners” in bulletins and Laudato Si’ / Creation Care Communities forming from Connecticut to California
- Diocesan Laudato Si Action Platform plans being made and reviewed in light of science-based realities as in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Indianapolis, and Lexington
- Women religious inviting local elected officials to a dialogue at town fairs in Indiana
- Public statements from Catholics at a Railroad Commission meeting in Texas, advocating for the health of the people of the Permian Basin who are falling sick because of the drilling
- Season of Creation masses being celebrated in parishes big and small from New York to Boston to Phoenix
- Catholics pushing for support of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty in Florida
- And so much more!
We Catholics at every level are stepping up and owning the strength of our own voices, because we are seeing the suffering of God’s people, and we are responding with love: love for God, for our neighbors, for ourselves, for our children, and for all Creation.
Bishop Dolan, at the Mass of Creation celebrated in Phoenix, Arizona.
We are a Gospel people; a people with hope to offer. We believe in the Resurrection after it seemed all was lost. Our hope as a movement is to unite in love to support creation’s thriving for abundant life for all, across perceived division. Our decisions and discernment on how to best care for our Common Home are grounded in this desire for life. We have a vision to help the kingdom of heaven break through our human-made barriers here on earth–in our towns, states, and countries–in a way that allows life to flourish for our families, our neighbors, our brothers and sisters around the world, and for all of creation. Throughout history we can see that when we allow the Holy Spirit to work in us, we can unite to solve huge problems.
There is a swell of prayer and loving action rising as we hope and act with Creation during this season. How are you joining us in Christ’s hope and love? We pray that everyone, from our leaders to our most impacted neighbors, and everyone in between, will know that we are Christians by our love.