One of the people whose thought has inspired the creation of this website is the amazing Jorge Bergoglio, a.k.a. Pope Francis. That’s why I’m including the following material on this site – which, as you have probably noticed, is largely intended for teachers working to transmit ecological knowledge and values to young people.
As a Catholic layperson who participated in the Justice and Environment Mission Group of Sisters of Holy Cross in Manchester, NH (prior to my move to Massachusetts), I was privileged to study Pope Francis’ transformative encyclical Laudato Si’ in the company of a marvelous group of Sisters. The “Gardening for Resilience” articles on this website were a direct outgrowth of conversations with members of this group.
Living values require action. Thus, while it is vital that we inform our young people about the varied beings and the intricate and ancient interactions that characterize the enfolding world, it’s also important that we as adults educate ourselves and the young people we teach about ways to heal and move beyond the dangerous complexities of the technologically altered world that some members of our species are currently devising. As responsible citizens of this planet, we must do this if we’re to conduct our lives as wisely and compassionately as possible. We must develop and model everyday ways of being for our students – actions! – that are consonant with our mature understanding of ecological processes, our human condition, and our regard for the health of the entire Earth Community – both human and “OtherWise.”
The following are several documents that stem from our reaction to Laudato Si’s beautiful challenge. They are connected to a project we devised to share with fellow parishioners a few suggestions for practices related to food that they might try in order to better embody the message of ‘Laudato Si’ in daily life. The sharing took place in the context of a Mercy2Earth event at the Parish of the Resurrection in Nashua, NH in 2017. After mass, special Fair Trade, Organically Grown refreshments were offered to the congregation (together with the usual donuts) plus a variety of educational literature. Most of the food at this event was sourced from Equal Exchange (see https://shop.equalexchange.coop/pages/congregations): a worker-owned company that sources coffee, tea, and other products from small-scale growers’ cooperatives. This outreach and education effort also taook place in conjunction with a campaign sponsored at that time by the Global Catholic Climate Movement – which is now known as the Laudato Si’ Movement.
Attached is the letter / proposal we presented to our Parish Pastor to gain permission for the event and then two educational pages which we distributed that day to those who were interested. The handouts explore how specific, ordinary actions related to food and purchasing can become powerful expressions of our care for each other and our Common Home (which is both the sacred Earth and the living Earth Community). One of the outreach pages shows how support for fair trade and small scale, diversified organic food production & eating can help us live out suggestions from Laudato Si.’ The other was developed to encourage our congregation to move away from our purchasing of styrofoam hot and cold cups for our various gatherings. That small but helpful change was framed in the context of creation care and also ‘the little way’ of St. Teresa of Lisieux.
A Proposal to Feature Organic and Fair Trade Products Sample from 2017
