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Session #7 of the Laudato Si' and the U.S. Catholic Church focuses on the Laudato Si' Action Platform's goal of “Community Resilience Empowerment”, which “envisages a synodal journey of community engagement and participatory action at various levels.” Panelists included: Rev. John Baumann, SJ, Director of Faith in Action International and Co-founder of Faith in Action, formerly PICO; Rev. Teña Nock, Co-chair for the Care for Creation Committee within HOPE; Dwayne David Paul, MA, Catholic educator, theologian, and cofounder of Religion in Revolt.

Session #5 of the Laudato Si' and the U.S. Catholic Church focuses on the Laudato Si' Action Platform's goal of “Ecological Education,”which aims to “re-think and re-design curricular and institutional reform in the spirit of integral ecology in order to foster ecological awareness and transformative action.” Panelists included: Erin M. Brigham, PhD, Executive Director of the Joan and Ralph Lane Center for Catholic Social Thought and the Ignatian Tradition and affiliate faculty in the department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of San Francisco;  Kate McGarey-Vase, Theology and Humanities Teacher at Salpointe Catholic High School (Tucson, AZ); Sage Lenier, Founder and Executive Director of Sustainable & Just Future.

Session #3 of the Laudato Si' and the U.S. Catholic Church conference focused on how more than 130 years of Catholic social teaching directly challenges core pillars of mainstream capitalism which celebrates unbridled exploitation of non-human nature and externalizes ecological costs like pollution from business calculations. Panelists shared how such a perspective is incongruent with the Laudato Si' Action Platform's goal of “Ecological Economics” and fidelity to Catholic social teaching. Presenters included Elizabeth Garlow, Nathan Schneider, and Michael Partis. The facilitator was Dan DiLeo.

Session #1 of the Laudato Si' and the U.S. Catholic Church Conference was the keynote featuring Christiana Figueres, former Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) who brokered the Paris Agreement. 

In 2015, Pope Francis wrote Laudato Si’ (The Letter); an encyclical letter about the environmental crisis to every single person in the world. A few years later, four voices that have gone unheard in global conversations have been invited to an unprecedented dialogue with the Pope. Hailing from Senegal, the Amazon, India, and Hawai’i, they bring perspective and solutions from the poor, the indigenous, the youth, and wildlife into a conversation with Pope Francis himself. This documentary follows their journey to Rome and the extraordinary experiences that took place there, and is packed with powerfully moving personal stories alongside the latest information about the planetary crisis and the toll it’s taking on nature and people. Learn more about the protagonists and how you can take action here.  

“The Letter is a remarkable film that brings together people from different cultures and backgrounds to advocate for ecojustice in the spirit of Laudato Si’. It should be seen in religious and educational institutions far and wide. The film is one of the most compelling reasons why the Laudato Si’ movement needs to be supported and expanded.”

- Mary Evelyn Tucker, Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology

In Laudato Si', Pope Francis has called for an ecological spirituality that embraces ecological justice. This talk will explore such a spirituality within the context of an “integral ecology” that brings together people and planet. Up to the present, secular environmentalism has been a dominant force in many academic departments and in the larger environmental movement. This form of environmentalism focuses on science and policy along with economic and technological solutions. However, there is a need for a broader ecospirituality and ecojustice that highlights values, ethics, and spiritual perspectives. This is what Jesuit colleges, universities, and secondary schools can contribute at this critical moment in our planetary history. View the slides for this presentation here.

Climate change and ecological harm disproportionately injure poor, vulnerable, and marginalized persons and communities—especially those of color. Learn from experts in the field as we consider how to “hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor” and integrate environmental justice into the U.S. Catholic embrace of Laudato Si’.

Please note: only certain portions of this video are in English

Speakers: His Eminence Cardinal Peter K. A. Turkson, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development; Fr. Joshtrom Isaac Kureethadam, coordinator of the “Ecology and Creation” Section of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development; Sr. Sheila Kinsey, executive co-secretary of the Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation Commission (JPIC) of the International Union of Superiors General; Carolina Bianchi, Laudato si' animator of the Global Catholic Climate Movement (GCCM) and INECOOP collaborator for the Policoro Youth Project of the Italian Episcopal Conference.

Eco-spirituality brings hope to a troubled world. Please join us for an opportunity to share in the fruitfulness of the work of Sowing Hope for the Planet. In this session, we will journey with men and women religious engaged in promoting Laudato Si'. We will celebrate stories of ecological conversion, both personal and communal. Examples of integrating conscious prayer and sacred action will be shared.

A dialogue about the Plight of Environmental Defenders around the world with Fr. Xavier Jeyaraj SJ + Melvin Purzuelo.

In this first part of the series, Dr. Catherine Wright unpacks the meaning of environmental justice and how Catholic Social Teaching (in particular Laudato Si’) gives us a helpful lens to view and act on this important issue. Veronica Coptis presents on her organization’s respectful collaboration with area residents living with the daily impacts of fossil fuel extraction, to improve oversight of and accountability for fossil fuel extraction and use, and protect public and environmental health.

Dr. Tucker recalls the extraordinary time when the Earth Charter was drafted and how exciting it was when the Earth Charter principles and the specifics of world religions were synergizing. She observes that the consultation and drafting process identified some of the common values across cultures and religions, despite the differences, including different cultural expressions of ethics. For her, the Earth Charter document represents one of the most integrated visions for the way forward, breaking disciplinary silos and bringing together the dimensions of cosmology, ecology, justice, democracy, and peace. Dr. Tucker reflects on the notion of the “Earth Community,” and she cites present-day examples to demonstrate how “interdependence” leads to “responsibility.” Reflecting on Pope Francis’ two latest encyclicals, as clear and wonderful contributions to our current times, Dr. Tucker concludes that they can be seen as continuity with and further development of the Earth Charter.

Presented by Woods Hole Research Center (WHRC)'s Dave McGlinchey, Rev. Mariama White-Hammond (founding pastor of New Roots AME Church, Boston), and Michael Sean Winters of National Catholic Reporter. Introductory remarks by Heather Goldstone, WHRC's Chief Communications Officer. Pope Francis is marking the 5-year anniversary of Laudato si’, the Catholic Church’s call for “swift and unified global action” to solve the climate crisis. Join us to hear how faith communities are addressing the ecological and moral emergency of climate change. The panelists will also discuss the Faith Science Alliance, in which scientists and faith leaders have found common cause in the climate crisis.

Keynote speaker: Pirmin Spiegel, Director-General and Chairman of Misereor. Learn how Laudato Si' calls on us to be advocates for Creation.

A special conversation with Fr. Augusto Zampini-Davies, adjunct secretary of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Integral Human Development and Christiana Figueres, former Executive Secretary of the Climate Change Secretariat (UNFCCC).

Keynote speaker: Clara Villalba, Board of Directors of OBSUR. Join and explore practical examples of initiatives that put people, particularly the most vulnerable, at the heart of the conversation.

This brief video gived an overview of the objectives and activities of the two-day International Conference “Saving our common home and the future of life on Earth,” which took place in Vatican City, July 5-6, 2018, hosted by the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

There is great potential for deepening interreligious dialogue focusing on our shared ecological challenges. The growing ecological crisis clearly requires the response of science and technology, economics and policy. But we will also need the participation of the world's religious communities as we recognize the moral and spiritual implications of the diminishment of the life support systems of the planet. This talk highlights some of the remarkable work being done within religious communities around the world to bring restoration to people and land. While acknowledging the limitations of religions it also notes the promise for ethical and spiritual transformation regarding ecological attitudes and practices. Interreligious dialogue has a new and vital role to play in healing the Earth.

In Part 1 of “The Cry of the Earth: How Pope Francis Calls Us to the Science Faith, and Action of Saving Our Common Home”, St. Vincent (co-sponsored by St. Ignatius Catholic Community) presents presents Dr. Stephen Scharper: Climate change science has emerged in the last three decades as one of the most vexed and contentious areas of contemporary research. From the muzzling of environmental scientists in Canada to the censorship of leading climate change researchers in the United States, politics has tinctured, tethered, and at times eclipsed scientific data on one of the most important issues of our times. In his pioneering encyclical “Laudato Si,” Pope Francis takes on the climate change issue, directly utilizing contemporary scientific research on climate change and its effects, such as global warming, rising sea levels, the acidification of oceans, and species lost. This talk explores a series of questions: What role can a Catholic voice play in the science climate change debate? Does Pope Francis have unique credentials for addressing climate change science? Does climate change science challenge people of faith to a deeper understanding of their relationship to and responsibilities for creation?

What has shifted in relation to business sustainability leadership and what is compelling companies to act now? In this interactive dialogue facilitated by Brad Gentry, panelists will discuss these questions among others, bringing to light new opportunities for business to mitigate climate change and contribute to the global sustainable development priorities. Featuring: Peter Bakker (President & CEO, WBCSD); Frances Beinecke (Former President, NRDC; Scholar, Yale); Pavan Sukhdev (Founder & CEO, GIST Advisory; Author); Mary Evelyn Tucker (Scholar of Religion and the Environment, Yale); Moderated by Brad Gentry (Associate Dean for Professional Practice, Yale; Director, Yale Center for Business and the Environment).

In Part 2 of “The Cry of the Earth: How Pope Francis Calls Us to the Science Faith, and Action of Saving Our Common Home”, St. Vincent (co-sponsored by St. Ignatius Catholic Community) presents Dr. John Haught of Georgetown University. Dr. Haught examines, through the lens of Pope Francis's Laudato Si, the broken connection between humans and nature that has been sanctioned by the academically endorsed suspicion that the universe has no point, no meaning, no purpose. With the help of the works of scientifically informed religious thinkers, such as Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Alfred North Whitehead this presentation explores Pope Francis’s courageous affirmation, in Laudato Si’, that the universe does indeed have a purpose, namely, that of bringing about the self-justifying value of beauty.

This panel discussion, with experts from across several disciplines, will discuss how Pope Francis' encyclical will re-frame the issue of climate change for Catholics and non-Catholics. John Grim, Phd will Moderate. Panelist include: Mary Evelyn Tucker, Ph.D., Teresa Berger, Ph.D., Joanna DaFoe, GRD '17. Respondents are Joshua Ratner, Associate Rabbi, Slifka Center and Omer Bajwa, Coordinator of Muslim Life, Yale Chaplain's Office.