catholic climate ambassadors ready to spread church teaching on the environment

Obedience to the voice of the earth is more important for our future happiness than the voices of the moment, the desires of the moment… Existence itself, our earth, speaks to us, and we have to learn to listen . Pope Benedict XVI, July 2007 PRESS RELEASE For Immediate Release December 6, 2010 For further information, Dan Misleh, 202-309-5754 [email protected]. Catholic Climate Ambassadors Ready to Spread Church Teaching on the Environment WASHINGTON, DC. From December 3-5, 2010, twelve Catholic le aders from across the country gathered outside Washington, DC, to immerse themselves in Catholic teaching on care for creation in light of climate change and to prepare to share this teaching and help promote the Catholic Climate Covenant: St. Francis Pledge to Care for Creation and the Poor in Catholic parishes, schools and other organizations. Most Reverend William Skylstad, recently retired bishop of Spokane and the honorary chairman of the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change, welcomed the ambassadors via a v ideo link on the first day of training by reminding the newly formed Catholic Climate Ambassadors how important this work will be in the months and years ahead. “Pope Benedict has inspired millions of Catholics around the world through his words and by his example and is now known to many as ‘The Green Pope,’” said Skylstad. “By your enthusiasm for this project and willingness to visit parishes, schools and gatherings of the Catholic faithful, many more will come to appreciate the need to recapture and live out ancient biblical teaching about proper stewardship of God’s gift of Creation.” “The Catholic community across the country will soon have access to Catholic Climate Ambassadors: men and women who understand and can articulate the messages of Pope Benedict XVI and the U.S. Catholic bishops on care for creation and climate change,” said Dan Misleh, Executive Director of the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change. (The work of the Coalition is supported by 11 national Catholic organizations including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.) “We are delighted with the caliber and enthusiasm of the new Ambassadors,” he continued. The three presentation sessions were led by Dr. Glenn Juday of the School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Alaska, and Professor Lucia Silecchia of the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law. Juday has been professionally involved in climate change issues from a scientific perspective for over thirty years, and Silecchia has written extensively on Catholic social thought and the environment, with a particular focus on the writings of Pope Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II. She was a participant in the 2007 Vatican conference o n Climate Change and Development, organized by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. Juday’s presentations introduced participants to the complex science of climate change. He covered the science of climate change, with a special focus o n climate history, the varied causes of climate change, the role of humans as agents o f environmental change, the trajectory of climate change, and the use of science to P.O. Box 60205 Washington, DC 20039 301-920-1442 www.catholicsandclimatechange.org [email protected] assist in planning public policy and personal choices. Silecchia then followed with sessions on Catholic social thought with respect to environmental stewardship. Her focus was on traditional principles of Catholic social thought – stewardship, solidarity, intergenerati onal responsibility, subsidiarity, the option for the poor, personal sacrifice, service to the common good and, above all, respect for the dignity of the human person – come into play when addressing complex ecological questions. Silecchia stated, “At a time when too much o f the secular environmental debate is caught up in partisan rancor, politization of science, and, quite frankly, a negative view of the dignity of the human person in creation, the Church has much to contribute by way of proposing moral principles to guide decision-making and planning in this field. Pope Benedict spoke recently of ‘our royal vocati on as stewards of the created order.’ It is my hope that initiat ives such as t his one will inspire more people to take that ‘royal vocation’ seriously and joyfully.”

catholic climate ambassadors ready to spread church teaching on the environment

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