Caring for Creation – our Common Home (JPIC)

Report by Paul Evans

The Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) Commission has taken the initiative of once more highlighting the message of The Pope’s Encyclical on Caring for our Common Home, Laudato Sí, just short of its 10^th anniversary of publication.

Following on from a successful workshop at Inchicore a similar workshop was held at St Joseph’s in Colwyn Bay, North Wales on Saturday, 4^th May 2024.

Fr Vimal, our Parish Priest and a leading member of the JPIC group welcomed Jane Mellett, Church Outreach Officer of Trócaire, the overseas development agency for the Catholic Church in Ireland, to run the workshop. Jane had travelled on the late evening ferry the night before, arriving in Colwyn Bay in the small hours of Saturday morning, just a few hours before taking the workshop at 10am.

Some 31 parishioners and guests attended. We were particularly pleased to have present Pauline Thomas of the Isle of Anglesey Mission and Pat and Mary of the Friends of Saint Eugene Group in Rockferry.

Through the use of a series of PowerPoint presentations and her own experiences working as Trócaire’s Laudato Sí’ Officer, Jane’s workshop was a reminder that the message of Laudato Sí offers a holistic approach to caring for our earthly home and everything in it.

We heard about an inter-connectivity and an inter-dependency of systems; a network where one system cannot exist without interacting and affecting another. The knowledge of this has been eroded over the centuries as we exploited without thought, the finite earthly resources.

In explaining a new term to many of us, Integral Ecology, Jane highlighted that environmental issues cannot be separated from social, political, economic and cultural issues. Everything is interconnected. This is the thread that runs through the entire Laudato Sí document.

World climate change predictions and information is a constant flow of data about increased monitoring, facts, statistics, reports and analysis that has led to a greater understanding, and even greater alarm, about the dire effects that centuries of unchecked global exploitation of resources has already brought about.

We are living through climate change. Without action now we are simply and starkly allowing a succession of changes to the earth, its peoples, its systems and the environment to spiral into a disordered world.

This is not ‘someone else’s problem’; we are all impacted by it, and have a Christian duty to care for our common home. As such, our role as individuals may seem insignificant and daunting in understanding and facing up to crucial supporting actions to ameliorate climate change; Jane encapsulated this in referring to the slow/fast paradox.

The ‘slow’ is about a contemplation of God’s creation, getting to know and appreciate once more that, as Christians, God’s gift of creation isn’t just about us as humans but about a creation of which we are but a part.

The ‘fast’ is about the urgency to act.

Attendees were introduced to the 7 Laudato Sí Goals.

1. Response to the Cry of the Earth
2. Response to the cry of the Poor
3. Ecological Economics
4. Adoption of Simple Lifestyles
5. Ecological Educations
6. Ecological Spirituality
7. Community Engagement and Participatory Action

Citing Greta Thunberg, Jane brought home the message that only through action would come hope for the future.

Throughout the well-paced sessions we paused to reflect upon and absorb the messages being presented to us. One exercise focused on The Great Turning. We were invited to consider these simple but deep questions:

• What do we need to turn up for?
• What do we need to turn away from?
• What do we need to turn towards?

We need to educate ourselves and keep abreast and informed of the crisis that has arrived, no matter how darkly this is portrayed in the media; there is no hiding place from climate change.

Extracts from Laudato Sí punctuated the day and were constant reminders of the spiritual relationship we have with Jesus Christ and our common home. This must be what spurs us on to our care of the earth.

The workshop moved into some examples of how a spiritual re-connection is vital to us as Christians in enhancing the actions that we are already committed to.

Ecological Spirituality guides us to ‘discover God in all things’ and the message of Laudato Sí must always be integral to both our spiritual worship and appreciation of and interaction with the world we have.

We learnt that in Ireland, already in place and proving effective, are platforms for understanding the issues and engagements with some first-step community actions, initiatives, and responses. We saw examples of how these could be initiated and could help form the basis of any actions we may consider as a faith community at St Joseph’s, Colwyn Bay. From schools, parishes, families, and communities there is a common role for us all.

Breaking out into small groups towards the end of the session gave us a good opportunity to discuss what we’d seen and heard throughout the day. In particular, the chance to articulate areas of concern and opportunities to influence matters proved most helpful.

Armed with links to many websites with suggestions for personal, parish, and community actions and importantly, prayers for our common home we left invigorated. Enthused, but not a little troubled about how effective political and international policies on the environment will ever be enacted to accelerate positive change in our world.

With our grateful thanks for Jane’s insights, infectious enthusiasm, and an excellent presentation of such complex global matters the workshop drew to a close.

We thank Jane, Fr Vimal, and Fr. Willie, and in particular our organisers of the day and all those who supported the workshop. Especial thanks to Bill and Heather Fortin for providing such an inspired and appealing lunch.

– Paul Evans