The Francis Effect II - Praised Be You - On Care for our Common Home by Catholic Mission

“ I urgently appeal... for a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet.” Laudato Si’ 14, Pope Francis

On Care for our Common Home

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FRANCIS EFFECT II Foreword by Yeb Saño

On Care for our Common Home

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FRANCIS EFFECT II Edited by: Danielle Achikian, Peter Gates, Jacqui RĂŠmond and Lana Turvey

We acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians of country throughout Australia and their continuing connection to land, water, culture and community. We pay our respects to elders past, present and future, and we thank and honour them for their sacrifice and stewardship.

For more information on Catholic Mission please visit www.catholicmission.org.au For more information on Catholic Religious Australia please visit www.catholicreligiousaustralia.org.au For more information of Catholic Earthcare Australia visit www.catholicearthcare.org.au Published by Catholic Mission, Catholic Religious Australia and Catholic Earthcare Australia PO Box 1668 North Sydney, NSW 2059 Copyright © 2015. All rights reserved. Except as provided by the Australian copyright law no part of this book may be reproduced in any way without written permission from the publisher. The passages contained herein are from the Apostolic Encyclical Laudato Si’ of the Holy Father Francis to the Bishops, Clergy, Consecrated Persons and the Lay Faithful On Care for our Common Home. Copyright © 2015 Libreria Editrice Vaticana. All rights reserved. Book design: Smarta by Design Cover photo: Servizio Fotografico, L’Osservatore Romano©. Used with permission. Inside photos: Author’s own Please note: The opinions and observations contained in this book are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Catholic Mission, Catholic Religious Australia and Catholic Earthcare Australia. Printed by a waterless printer on 100% carbon neutral recycled paper.

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Ms Lana Turvey Mr Peter Gates

Preface

Mr Yeb Saño

Foreword

Professor Denis Edwards

Hope for our Common Home

Fr Gregory Jacobs SJ

Parishes caring for our Common Home

Deacon Joe McKay ofm

Laudato Si’ through Franciscan Eyes

Mrs Jacqui Rémond

Leadership and Governance for our Common Home

Ms Thelma Parker

An Aboriginal reflection on Laudato Si’

Dr Patricia Hindmarsh

Ecological Conversion through Education

Miss Terese Corkish

Young People's call to Transform

Mrs Sarah Rose Mr Jassen Rose

Encountering Creation in Families

Dr Ricki Jeffery

Integral Ecology and the work of Social Services

Mrs Mary Dalmau

God's Creative Love in Health & Aged Care

Ms Ann Austin

Ecological Leadership in Business

Sr Kateia Kaikai smsm

A call for conversion from Environmental Migrants

Living an Ecological Vocation

Ecological Examen

Acknowledgements

Contributing Authors

Further Reading

Website References

Notes

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THE FRANCIS EFFECT II: PRAISED BE YOU – ON CARE FOR OUR COMMON HOME

Preface

Pope Francis’ Encyclical Laudato Si’ appeals urgently for “a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet…which includes everyone” (LS 14). It is particularly directed to those in the minority world who pollute and consume much of its resources, believers and non-believers. The Church in Australia has great capacity to respond and act to protect our Common Home. It will need to be “bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets” (EG 49) to achieve a global ecological conversion, to heal damage done and build “a harmony between the Creator, humanity and creation”. (LS 66) To this end and in support of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ invitation to the Australian community to address the challenges and opportunities in Laudato Si’, Catholic Mission, Catholic Religious Australia and Catholic Earthcare Australia have partnered to publish the second book in The Francis Effect series: The Francis Effect II: Praised Be You – On Care for our Common Home. The twelve chapters of this book are written from the individual perspectives of the authors. They are experts and practitioners in their respective fields and offer wisdom and practical insight into how we might take up Pope Francis’ challenge to become the generation of “humanity at the dawn of the twentyfirst century … remembered for having generously shouldered its grave responsibilities” (LS 165). Within these pages are inspiration and practical ideas for caring for our Common Home, for family members and parishioners, Church, business and Catholic agency leaders, young people, Catholic educators, social service THE FRANCIS EFFECT II: PRAISED BE YOU – ON CARE FOR OUR COMMON HOME

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and pastoral care workers, people engaged in health and aged care and those charged with the responsibilities of leadership and governance. In 2013 in the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis called us all to be “missionary disciples” and excitedly asked “what are we waiting for?” (EG 120). This question also applies to how we are called to respond to Laudato Si’. We must “go forth boldly” (EG 261) and take every action to protect creation and care for our Common Home and “cooperate as instruments of God for the care of creation, each according to his or her own culture, experience, involvement and talents” (LS 14). We too urgently appeal for an authentic dialogue in response to Pope Francis’ Encyclical Laudato Si’ – On Care for our Common Home. We encourage you to engage with enthusiasm and deeply consider the challenge of how we will act to protect creation and continue Christ’s mission, building the Reign of God. Ms Lana Turvey Program Manager, Adult Education and Mission Formation, Catholic Mission Mr Peter Gates Deputy National Director, Catholic Mission

“As a missionary, Pope Francis' central concern is not the Church but the future of mother earth and life for all, especially the poor. For him, the economy should serve humans and nature, not some individuals.” Fr Noel Connolly SSC, Head of Studies, Columban Mission Institute

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THE FRANCIS EFFECT II: PRAISED BE YOU – ON CARE FOR OUR COMMON HOME

Foreword Mr Yeb Saño Leader, The People’s Pilgrimage Spiritual Ambassador, Our Voices Former Climate Change Commissioner, Philippines

Early this year, Pope Francis visited my family’s hometown in Tacloban, which sat at the heart of devastation in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan. Our hearts were filled with gladness for his compassion, and our moral resolve was strengthened as his gesture to visit the stormravaged communities connected the bold dots of the climate crisis. One week before Pope Francis published his Encyclical, Laudato Si’, I arrived in Sydney as part of a spiritual ecological journey called The People’s Pilgrimage. My experience connecting with faith leaders, advocates, activists, and friends from the various organisations working on faith and ecology in Australia was deeply moving and inspired me no end. The pilgrimage pays homage to people and communities who are helping spread the message of caring for creation and standing up against many of the injustices that we confront in the world today. Through this journey, we pray with our feet,

carrying in our hearts the message that Francis so lovingly inscribed in his letter and amplifying it so that all may be blessed with his words. As I trekked through the Blue Mountains with several friends from the faith communities and local caretakers of the ancient landscape, I had the honour of walking through some of the most sacred land in Australia. Meditating before such magical and breathtaking beauty was both humbling and spiritually enriching. At Airlie Beach, at the doorstep to the heart of the Great Barrier Reef, I encountered the same powerful

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experience as I walked along the ageless paths and felt the pebbles under my feet where Indigenous ancestors once walked. Equally intense was the sense of solidarity I felt as a pilgrim marching with many others across the Sydney Harbour Bridge as an act both of paying tribute to the natural beauty around us and acknowledging the importance of our human ability to literally and literarily build bridges, in our constant quest to connect with each other and with nature.

crisis of our time and the moral tenor of this planetary predicament.

Perhaps what makes Laudato Si’ special, with unprecedented enthusiasm around a papal Encyclical, is that the messenger is the message. This is the Francis effect. Once again, Pope Francis has given us a gift through himself, expressed through this Encyclical. Jorge Bergoglio chose a regnal name that would undoubtedly establish his reputation as a defender of the poor and of the earth. The saint from Assisi is to be his guide and inspiration.

Thus, it is with profound appreciation and gratitude that I welcome this collection of reflections, The Francis Effect II: Praised Be You – On Care for our Common Home. We must thank Catholic Mission, Catholic Religious Australia and Catholic Earthcare Australia for their tireless efforts, dedication, and leadership in putting together these thoughtful insights on Laudato Si’, which I would consider as one of the most important documents of the Church in all history.

It therefore comes as no surprise that Pope Francis would come up with Laudato Si’. Greatly anticipated, the messages within Laudato Si’ have been given directly to us and the responsibility rests on our shoulders to ensure that the Encyclical remains an important message speaking courageously about the environmental

As we continue on this journey, we realise that Francis is telling us many things all at once, but that the very answers to the cry of the poor and the cry of the earth are one and the same. The reflections in this book, in breadth and in depth, help us distill this reality and move towards a life of ecological conversion.

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It is always enticing to dissect the Encyclical and I suspect that from hereon, each one of us will have a favourite paragraph, especially if it resonates with our own treasured values. But the Encyclical is not merely a collection of separate chapters and paragraphs. It is one message of love, which resonates in a myriad of possibilities.

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It is enormously important that as stewards of creation, we look at the global environmental challenge as a moral issue, more than an environmental and political issue. Sitting at the heart of the environmental crisis is a myriad of dysfunctions – economic, ecological, social, political. But most importantly, the glaring dysfunction is spiritual. It is therefore a great source of strength for us that our spiritual leader has offered us a guide, both in his words and through his example. Pope Francis, in his role as the head of the Church, has become the epitome of spiritual strength, solidarity with other faiths, and hope for the exploited. As he strongly speaks on caring for our earth, his words have become a powerful indictment of the economic world order that has exploited the poor and the planet. This same economic logic pervades in Australia, and it is our hope that with this book, we become more emboldened to heed the call to change course towards integral ecology. What Francis offers is a message of great hope – that the current unethical and dysfunctional world order can be transformed. The Encyclical urges us to answer the question ‘what is possible?’ While we draw lessons from history, including the triumphs of

many social movements and spiritual awakenings, we need to avoid being limited by what history has allowed us to achieve, and we must not be daunted by the kind of aspiration we envision for the future. We can and must build this promise of a better world, now. The leaders, movers, and caretakers who have put forward their reflections in this book can help us build this dream. Laudato Si’ comes at a crucial point in our common journey as a human family. This year we see many political moments that aim to confront the planetary crisis. In the later part of 2015 world leaders gather in Paris to attempt to forge a new climate agreement. We will journey by foot from Rome to Paris, carrying the Encyclical and every morsel of inspiration we have drawn from our encounters along the way. As pilgrims, we embark on this journey, yet akin to Pope Francis our ultimate destination is not Paris. Our mission is to reach the hearts and minds of all people. It gives me great honour to be able to advocate for this anthology to what I hope will be a throng of readers and followers. I have had the pleasure of being part of the journey in Australia. Through this book, may you be blessed and be part of this wonderful pilgrimage. Praised be.

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THE FRANCIS EFFECT II: PRAISED BE YOU – ON CARE FOR OUR COMMON HOME

Hope

for our Common Home

Professor Denis Edwards Professorial Fellow, Australian Catholic University

“Everything is related, and we human beings are united as brothers and sisters on a wonderful pilgrimage, woven together by the love God has for each of his creatures and which also unites us in fond affection with brother son, sister moon, brother river and mother earth.” (LS 92) Pope Francis’ new Encyclical arrived in my inbox when I was in an airport dealing with a missed connection, which meant I was facing a twentyfour hour delay in getting home. As I read Laudato Si’, the anxiety I felt about what I was supposed to be doing back in Adelaide gave way to other emotions. I was overtaken by profound relief that, in the midst of the global crisis of life we face, Francis is offering inspiring leadership not just to the Church, but also to the world. I felt hope springing up in my own heart, a hope that we humans might pull together for the good of the community of life on

our planet. There is deep joy in the vision that Francis puts before us all. I experienced a renewed challenge to see my life as an ecological vocation, radically committed to the earth and all its creatures. This Encyclical represents a new moment in Catholic social teaching. Since the 1980’s Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI have made important contributions that call the Church and the world to an ecological conversion. But with this far more developed work of Pope Francis, the protection of God’s creation is now formally, and permanently, brought

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to the centre of Catholic social teaching, along with the Church’s long-standing commitment to interhuman justice and peace. In what follows, I will highlight some of what I see as key theological positions taken by Pope Francis in this document.

A theology grounded in what is happening to our Common Home Laudato Si’ begins with a clear-eyed discussion of what is happening to our planet. Pope Francis sees earth as our common home, a home to be shared by humans and other creatures, a home for future generations. It is a home that we are meant to care for and protect, but one we have treated with violence. In particular Pope Francis offers a careful analysis of major issues we face, particularly pollution and global warming, the looming crisis of fresh water, and the loss of biodiversity, along with the decline in the quality of human life, breakdown of society, and global inequality.

Using the Young Christian Workers’ method of see, judge, and act, further developed in liberation theology, and in contextual and practical theologies, Pope Francis begins from the reality we face. He then offers three chapters of reflection on this reality; one on the Gospel of creation, a second on an analysis of the deep human roots of

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this reality, with these two chapters culminating in the third, his vision of integral ecology. In the final two chapters he turns to action, both at the political and at the personal level.

The way of dialogue

A striking feature of Laudato Si’ is that it consistently puts into practice the way of dialogue advocated by the Second Vatican Council’s Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. The Encyclical is fully dialogical in both its structure and its content.

Pope Francis sees earth as our common home, a home to be shared by humans and other creatures, a home for future generations. Structurally, the Encyclical is addressed as a dialogue with all humanity as well as with the Church. In his third paragraph, Francis writes, “Now, faced as we are with global environmental deterioration, I wish to address every person living on this planet…In this Encyclical, I would like to enter into dialogue with all people about our common home” (LS 3). This structural dialogue, with all humanity

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as well as the Church, continues throughout the Encyclical, and finds expression in two final prayers, the first, “A prayer for our earth,” for all who believe in the Creator, and the second “A Christian prayer in union with creation,” for those who embrace God the Trinity (LS 246).

and fraternity” (LS 201). In Chapter Four, where Francis makes concrete suggestions about ways forward to the world political community, he describes them explicitly as “paths of dialogue” (LS 163).

“to commit a crime against the natural world is a sin against ourselves and a sin against God” (LS 8).

In his second chapter, Pope Francis turns to the Bible to articulate a theology of the whole of creation as one interrelated community before God. The biblical texts point to the goodness of the whole of creation and testify that other creatures have value in themselves, because they are loved and cared for by God. The Psalms sing of the community of all creatures joined together in praising God. In this biblical vision, all have their own place and their own meaning. Each creature is an expression in the world of divine love. Pope Francis sees humans as part of this community of creation and human life as grounded in three relationships: “with God, with our neighbour, and with the earth itself” (LS 66). We are interrelated with all other creatures as our brothers and sisters. “Everything is related, and we human beings are united as brothers and sisters on a wonderful pilgrimage, woven together by the love God has for each of his creatures and which also unites us in fond affection with brother son, sister moon, brother river and mother earth” (LS 92).

In terms of content, Francis points to the contributions of scientists, philosophers, theologians and civic groups from whom the Church has learnt. He points particularly to other Christian churches and to other religions with whom he makes common cause. As a particular example he holds up the ‘beloved’ Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of the Orthodox Church, who has long drawn attention to the spiritual roots of our ecological crisis and who teaches that “to commit a crime against the natural world is a sin against ourselves and a sin against God” (LS 8). Francis sees the religions of the world as called “to dialogue among themselves for the sake of protecting nature, defending the poor, and building networks of respect

The universal communion of creation

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God’s love for creation finds its deepest expression in the self-giving of the incarnation, in the Word made flesh in Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus loved the creatures of earth he found around him – birds, flowers, seeds growing into trees, and he loved human beings. He loved us all to the very point of death on a cross. Through his death and resurrection, the risen Christ draws to final fulfilment not only human beings but the whole of creation. The risen Christ is present and active in the whole of creation, as Pope Francis makes clear in his prayer, “Son of God, Jesus, through you all things were made. You were formed in the womb of Mary our Mother, you became part of this earth, and you gazed upon this world with human eyes. Today you are alive in every creature in your risen glory” (LS 246).

We are interrelated with all other creatures as our brothers and sisters. Integral ecology

Integral ecology is at the centre of Pope Francis’ Encyclical. Ecological commitment and commitment to the good of humanity, above all the poor, are held together in one vision. These two commitments are united as aspects

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of the one ecological vocation. Our response to the crisis we face will need to be holistic, based on a broad vision of reality that involves not only plants, animals, habitats, the atmosphere, rivers and seas, but also human beings and their culture. We find inspiration for this kind of integration in St Francis of Assisi, in his love for the poor and his love for the other creatures of the natural world. From the very first homily of his pontificate, Pope Francis has made this same link clearly and strongly, calling us to protect creation, and to protect our human brothers and sisters, above all those who are poor and excluded. In Laudato Si’ he writes, “Everything is connected. Concern for the environment thus needs to be joined to a sincere love for our fellow human beings and an unwavering commitment to resolving the problems of society” (LS 91). An integral ecology involves love and respect for animals and plants, but also for human history, art and architecture. Integral ecology involves protecting the cultural treasures of humanity. In a very particular way it involves respect for the cultures of indigenous peoples. “They are not merely one minority among others, but should be the principle dialogue partners, especially when large projects affecting their land

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are proposed. For them, land is not a commodity but rather a gift from God and from their ancestors who rest there, a sacred space with which they need to interact if they are to maintain their identity and values” (LS 146).

Ecological commitment and commitment to the good of humanity, above all the poor, are held together in one vision. Political and personal action

Pope Francis prophetically engages political leaders in dialogue, asking them to accept responsibility for protecting the environment and calling them to support international agreements aimed at lifting people out of poverty, limiting carbon emissions and protecting biodiversity. But in Chapter Five he also points to the fundamental importance of “Civic and Political Love” (LS 228-232) at other levels, including the indispensable role of ecological education in our families and schools. He insists on the importance of embracing ways of acting, “such as avoiding the use of plastic and paper, reducing water consumption, separating refuse, cooking only

what can reasonably be consumed, showing care for other living beings, using public transport or carpooling, planting trees, turning off unnecessary lights…” (LS 211). Like Pope John Paul II before him, Pope Francis calls us all to an ongoing ecological conversion, to a spirituality of love and respect for other animals, and their habitats, for the land, the seas, the rivers, in the one community of life on earth. All of this is celebrated on our Sundays, in the Sabbath rest, and in the Eucharist that embraces all creation, and is a source of light and motivation for our commitment to our common home and all its creatures.

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Questions:

1. W hat dimensions of The Francis Effect II does Denis Edwards bring into focus for you? 2. In what ways does Laudato Si’ characterise a theology of leadership for ecological mission? 3. Integral ecology links care for people and care for God’s creation. How is our concern for our fellow human beings connected to our concern for the environment? 4. What does this reflection and Laudato Si’ ask of the Church in Australia? What does it ask of you? 5. How is ‘hope for our Common Home’ lived in your work of mission?

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Parishes

caring for our Common Home

Fr Gregory Jacobs SJ Parish Priest, Holy Family Parish, Mt Druitt, Catholic Diocese of Parramatta

“All of us can cooperate as instruments of God for the care of creation, each according to his or her own culture, experience, involvements and talents.” (LS 14) The parish remains the archetypal Church community, and as such retains an essential place and space for any Christian to live out their commitments to God, to each other and to the world. Pope Francis continues these themes in Laudato Si’ by expanding our horizons to include nature alongside the poor as needing constant care and protection by the Church. The parish certainly is a place for the deepening of our relationship with God: it is a natural place and space for prayer, for liturgy, for the sacraments. The parish is also there for the living out of our human relationships. It is where we gather together as community and are sent out into the world to fulfil our mission of caring

for the poor and needy. But we have not always looked at the parish as the place and space for exploring our connections with the earth. There are different ways of looking at the environment. We can observe it from outside, uncritically and without depth. We can accept things just as they are, as tourists passing through. We can exploit it for its natural and mineral resources. We can treat the poor and the Church in the same way – observing them from a distance, being passive in Mass and our prayer. When such indifference becomes the norm, then we are in trouble. Pope Francis warns us repeatedly of the interconnectedness of everything in the world – how we treat one thing

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will eventually roll over into how we treat everything else (LS 48). Our indifference or cruelty to creatures will eventually turn into indifference and cruelty to humanity – look at the way society can treat the unborn, refugees and the elderly (LS 92).

…our God is one who comes to us through nature. The parish can be the sacred place where these attitudes can change because it is often used as a ‘sacred space’ and a ‘sacred place’ away from our daily lives where we can reflect and critique our lives, and where we find God. In the Old Testament God is often linked with ‘place’ – from altars built on sites of encounter, to mountain tops and burning bushes, to our own experiences of awe and wonder at sunsets and forest glades – our God is one who comes to us through nature. I remember being in England recently visiting some ruined abbeys. Fountain Abbey particularly caught my imagination as sacred space. Here the roof had collapsed and many of the monastery walls had been pillaged for their stones to build other houses. Yet more than any other abbey I visited,

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here grass was replacing the hard stone with new life. I wanted to say Mass in this clearly sacred historical site where nature and prayer were now intermingled. Today, as always, we seldom allow God’s creation into our liturgical spaces except in controlled and managed symbols and decoration. I wonder if, in light of this Encyclical, we need to modify our liturgical spaces to accommodate more of God’s creation. Pope Francis teaches us to view God’s creation in new ways. The first Genesis account of creation teaches that each element in creation is good, yet it is only the completed ecology that God finally proclaims it to be “very good” (LS 65, cf. Gen 1:31). It is only when the interrelationships work in harmony that God’s creation comes to the fullness of life.

I wonder if, in light of this Encyclical, we need to modify our liturgical spaces to accommodate more of God’s creation. Pope Francis continues to challenge us to new ways of thinking about our three foundational relationships – with God, with our neighbour, and

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with the earth itself (LS 66). Without this inner change then no external behavioural changes will right the sin and destruction that we have, and continue to have, on our world. Instead of being passive observers, or sinful actors even, parishes can be the source of action and new life, of connecting God, humanity and the rest of creation. We can start with the practical if we wish: those parishes that have land can use it to teach others about growing their own food through community gardens (and not rely on food shipped vast distances), or install solar panels and water tanks for the church and presbytery, or campaign for various local needs like clean water, better air quality, etc. But this is not ever going to be enough if our attitude to creation, and ourselves, remains the same.

limited resources and how sharing them is good ecology, that when things are balanced right there is no wastage, that it is alright to slow down and take time to smell the lilies of the field, and change in God’s time is deliberately slow and creative. These elements only need better highlighting and focus in our parish community and liturgical life.

A natural home can be found in the parish with a little creativity and emphasis. We already use elements of nature in our sacraments – water, oil, fire and colours used in each season, the hand that blesses, the water poured at Baptism, are all rich symbols of power and are incorporated into our acts of praise and worship (LS 235). Indeed Jesus himself transformed our imagination to understand the human body as the temple of the Holy Spirit. We can learn from God’s creation about the need for self-restraint, of

Through the liturgical cycle we learn about Emmanuelle – God with us, repentance, death and resurrection, metanoia – a change of heart, and finding God in the ordinary experiences and moments of our life. But we also learn about care for each other and care for God’s creation. More so in the northern hemisphere, the liturgical cycle follows the seasonal cycle of winter darkness before Christmas, to the growing of the light into our world, and into the dying of winter and the new life of

Instead of being passive observers, or sinful actors even, parishes can be the source of action and new life, of connecting God, humanity and the rest of creation.

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spring (Easter). In Australia it is a little harder to match these symbols and cycles together. But with some creativity by parish communities it is not impossible.

We cannot live in the Church and not be involved in the world. It is this very rich interconnection between these symbols, our relationships with human beings and our dependence on God that speaks so clearly in this Encyclical. We cannot live in the Church and not be involved in the world. But neither can we worship technology or science or the economy (as good as these things can be) and allow them to be the ultimate direction and goal of our life – and not have consequences for our life with God. This sinfulness, this idolatry, can happen in the Church just as easily as in civil life. Priests and people can be caught up with replacing technology as quickly as it can be produced, continuing to live in a throw-away society, and buying food that needs to be shipped vast distances to satisfy our whims and desires. But the parish can also be the place for healing, for forgiveness and for finding the larger picture of life and

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community. The parish gathers people together. The parish should be the place where we welcome the stranger, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give shelter to those in need, and the place from where we go out to visit the sick in their homes, and those in prison or on the streets – all those acts of charity that Matthew depicts as works of the Reign of God.

The parish should be the place where we welcome the stranger, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give shelter to those in need, and the place from where we go out to visit the sick in their homes, and those in prison or on the streets. But sometimes we also need to be challenged to expand our understanding of Church. Is Church membership confined to those who walk through our doors and sit in our pews? Is the image of our Church an island, or a beacon surrounded by the evil of darkness and sin? Or is it this more expansive view of Pope Francis that sees us out in the world

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evangelising it? Pope Francis has been one who has not closed doors, but rather opened them – famously encouraging the faithful to “take on ‘the smell of the sheep’” (EG 24). Later he expressed this as, “I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security” (EG 49).

Pope Francis has been one who has not closed doors, but rather opened them.

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Questions:

1. W hat dimensions of The Francis Effect II does Gregory Jacobs bring into focus for you? 2. How does this reflection and Laudato Si’ challenge us to understand our parish as ‘the place and space for exploring our connections with the earth’? 3. How does the Eucharist inspire and motivate our concern for the environment? How should Sunday worship impact weekday witness? 4. When we fail to care for creation, what impact does that have on our relationships with ourselves, others, God and the earth? 5. Pope Francis challenges us to new ways of thinking about three foundational relationships – with God, with our neighbour, and the earth itself. How can parishes be sources of action and new life for connecting with God, humanity and the rest of creation? 6. How has your understanding of mission and discipleship been informed by this reflection and the Francis Effect II?

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Laudato Si’ through

Franciscan eyes

Deacon Joe McKay ofm Order of Friars Minor, Province of the Holy Spirit

“…whenever he would gaze at the sun, the moon or the smallest of animals, he burst into song, drawing all other creatures into his praise. He communed with all creation, even preaching to the flowers, inviting them ‘to praise the Lord, just as if they were endowed with reason’.” (LS 11) The Order of Friars Minor follow Saint Francis of Assisi in living in harmony with God’s creation and all people of goodwill. Internationally we developed a guide for the Care for Creation in the Daily Life of the Friars Minor (2011) and guidelines for ethical use of resources in the Franciscan Management of Finances (2014). The Friars in Australia and New Zealand developed the Franciscan Sustainability Guide to reflect locally on how we can respond to our suffering planet. While very aware of the steps required

for ecological conversion we have struggled to change our habits. Laudato Si’ and these documents provide great information and direction but they remain but words unless we are grabbed by God’s love. Saint Francis quoted Saint Paul “The letter kills but the Spirit gives life” (2 Cor 3:6) to warn the friars that they need to go beyond knowing what God requires of us and allow the Holy Spirit to animate them and respond to God through prayerful action. Contemplative prayer must be the centre of any response to the issues raised in Laudato Si’.

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Reading creation as the reflection of Christ Crucified The early Franciscan saints had the insight that creation was a great mirror of the divine. Christ Crucified is understood as the model or ‘exemplar’ and centre of all creation. The life of Jesus Christ reveals the key to understanding our disordered world. We deepen our understanding through reflection and prayer. Saint Clare of Assisi proposed a way of prayer centred on reflecting on the image of Christ. She asks us to gaze, consider, contemplate and imitate the image of the Crucified Christ in the world.

Christ Crucified is understood as the model or ‘exemplar’ and centre of all creation. Gaze

First, Saint Clare suggests we gaze on Christ as if looking into a mirror. In this mirror we see ourselves as a son or daughter of the Most High. Similarly, Pope Francis asks us to consider that Jesus gazed on our world (LS 96-100). To gaze is to see things more deeply and clearly, we must remove the filters that blur our vision and spend time to allow God to reveal God’s self more

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clearly. Saints Francis and Clare invite us to see creation as our brother and sister. Saint Francis could see Christ in rocks, worms and lambs.

Consider

Secondly, Saint Clare asks us to consider how Christ self-emptied himself in love through poverty, humility and charity. We are also asked to consider how we too may self-empty ourselves to allow God to express God’s love through us. Jesus came into the world as a naked baby, defenceless, calling for us to care for him. He gave his life for others. He opened himself totally to experience our sin damaged world. Christ emptied himself completely on the cross to fill creation with God’s love.

Our emotions are a very important way of experiencing God’s creation and we need to take them into prayer. Contemplate

Thirdly, Clare asks us to contemplate. To experience the world as Jesus experienced the world. What did he see as he walked the streets of Jerusalem? What did he feel as he climbed the rolling hills of Galilee?

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What emotions did he experience in response to suffering? Pope Francis states that the earth is “beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth” (LS 21). In response to this indictment we might be struck with a sense of anger or sorrow. Our emotions are a very important way of experiencing God’s creation and we need to take them into prayer. We are asked to step into Christ’s body and feel Christ’s blood bringing us his life. Christ experienced bodily the suffering of those around him. Christ responded to that experience with great love and compassion for the world.

Imitate Finally, Clare asks us to see, that like the world, we too are a reflection of Christ. That we too are called to imitate Christ’s ways and follow in Christ’s footsteps more deeply into our suffering world. Like Christ we are called to bring to the world Christ’s healing and hope.

Laudato Si’ urges each of us to consider how we might respond in a Christlike way to the suffering around us.

Transformation however does not occur in the mind and heart but in our incarnate body and blood. For real change to occur we need to look on creation with Christ’s eyes and then, animated by the Spirit, follow Christ’s footsteps more deeply into creation to return to the Father. Laudato Si’ urges each of us to consider how we might respond in a Christ-like way to the suffering around us. Through our daily actions we can take steps to heal creation and bring peace to the world.

Prayerful action leads to God being revealed more clearly The Franciscans understand prayerful action as polishing and shining the mirror of creation. Prayer helps us to experience the world as Christ experienced the world, to see God’s beauty in the world more clearly. Prayer invites us to be transformed into more Christ-like people acting to restore beauty to the world around us. God works through us, each time we act to polish the mirror of creation we help ourselves and others to see Christ more clearly in the world. We can work with God to make the world more beautiful, more expressive of God’s “radiant presence” (LS 100). Saint Francis of Assisi believed that beauty leads us to God:

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In beautiful things he grasped Beauty itself and through the footprints impressed in things he followed his Beloved everywhere, out of them making for himself a ladder through which he could lay hold of Him who is utterly desirable. Major Legend of Saint Francis, Bonaventure.

Authentic dialogue seeks to understand those with whom we disagree. Dialogue at the periphery In Laudato Si’ Pope Francis has highlighted the importance of dialogue in caring for our common home (LS 163-201). The crossing of the battlefront of the Fifth Crusade in 1219 by Saint Francis of Assisi to meet the Sultan Malik Al-Kamil provides an example of the courageous dialogue required to address issues facing our world. To find a common way forward we need to reach out across boundaries, not just talk to our friends. Authentic dialogue seeks to understand those with whom we disagree. The miner, the forester, the company director, the banker and politicians all have noble vocations which ultimately are aimed at serving others.

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Demonising any of these positions is a block to authentic dialogue and prevents both understanding and discovery of shared pathways forward. Dialogue leaves no one unchanged. Through dialogue, relationships are formed and deepened. By entering into true dialogue we can appreciate God’s creation through the eyes of the other. Standing in their shoes we come to understand their concerns and their perceived barriers to conversion. We also start to see ourselves through their eyes. Courage is required to proclaim the truth as we see and know it. We must listen attentively and with humility to views that are not our own because “On many concrete questions, the Church has no reason to offer a definitive opinion; she knows that honest debate must be encouraged among experts, while respecting divergent views” (LS 61). In dialogue we need to forgive and seek forgiveness graciously. In dialogue at the periphery we need to enter and experience our brokenness together. The meeting of Saint Francis and the Sultan seemingly changed nothing. The path to peace which they saw possible was rejected. However within ten years the path the Saint and the Sultan saw was taken by others and

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Christians were given safe access to the Holy Land. In dialogue it is faith and hope that will lead us to healing.

Praised be You, God of all creation, “encourage us, we pray, in our struggle for justice, love and peace” (LS 246). Pope Francis has described the many areas in which we need to enter into dialogue to protect our common home. We need to learn from the meeting of the Saint with the Sultan to enter dialogue bravely but humbly. The Order of Friars Minor have developed a Franciscan Peacebuilding Toolkit to help develop the skills required for dialogue across broken boundaries.

of all people, particularly the poor and marginalised with respect to the development and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies; † promoting peaceful dialogue. We commend Laudato Si’ to all people and join Pope Francis in his appeal for dialogue, his call for change in our daily choices and behaviours and share in his prayers. Praised be You, God of all creation, “encourage us, we pray, in our struggle for justice, love and peace” (LS 246).

Priorities

International priority actions for the Friars Minors in response to the Encyclical include: † more prayer; † promoting greater awareness of the issues highlighted by Laudato Si’; † acting to reduce the negative consequences of our lifestyle on the poor and the environment; † promoting environmental justice – that is ensuring the fair treatment THE FRANCIS EFFECT II: PRAISED BE YOU – ON CARE FOR OUR COMMON HOME

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Questions:

1 . W hat dimensions of The Francis Effect II does Joe McKay bring into focus for you? 2. Guided by this reflection and Pope Francis, how can we “work with God to make the world more beautiful, more expressive of God’s ‘radiant presence’” (LS 100)? 3. Laudato Si’ calls for dialogue that includes everyone. Who has been excluded that we should include? 'Authentic dialogue seeks to understand those with whom we disagree.' Why is dialogue with those we disagree with so important in finding better ways to care for creation and each other? 4. What do you know of St Francis? What can we learn and understand from his witness and example of “care for the vulnerable and of an integral ecology lived out joyfully and authentically” (LS 10)?

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Leadership and Governance for our Common Home

Mrs Jacqui Rémond Director, Catholic Earthcare Australia

“God wills the interdependence of creatures. The sun and the moon, the cedar and the little flower, the eagle and the sparrow: the spectacle of their countless diversities and inequalities tells us that no creature is self-sufficient. Creatures exist only in dependence on each other, to complete each other, in the service of each other.” (CCC 340 in LS 86) Laudato Si’ means that every single person on earth is invited to take a leadership role in terms of personal lifestyle and institutional reform, no matter what our position title or job description – caring for our sister earth is everybody’s business. In Laudato Si’ every person is invited to address our unchecked human activity that is causing our common home to fall into serious disrepair. In working towards comprehensive solutions we might consider the following key principles and processes for responsible leadership and

governance: participation; developing a spirituality of communion; caring for people and planet; and dialogue, as the vehicles for ecological conversion. At the heart of Laudato Si’ is the central concern that humanity’s relationship with creation and Creator has been broken or ruptured. “There can be no renewal of our relationship with nature without a renewal of humanity itself” (LS 118). The best responses to this painful reality are acts of reconciliation, that heal the connection between people and planet leading to new ways of thinking

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and being, feeling compassion for all things in the universe, and new patterns and habits that belong to a new lifestyle and culture. This healing process and outcome has been named ‘ecological conversion’.

Participation

We must begin by re-discovering that there is a deep interconnection between all created things. How are we being called to participate? In Laudato Si’ Pope Francis gives us a key insight from Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew that, “It is a way of loving, of moving gradually away from what I want to what God’s world needs” (LS 9). Laudato Si’ reminds us that we all have a unique contribution to offer our world and each one has a part to play. “All of us can cooperate as instruments of God for the care of creation, each according to his or her own culture, experience, involvements and talents” (LS 14).

We must begin by re-discovering that there is a deep interconnection between all created things. Therefore our participation through daily choices, in every facet of our

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lives, really matters. Our decisionmaking needs an ecological orientation that is transparent to all those around us – at home and at work. As decision makers we are accountable for our choices and it is no longer acceptable not to consider ecological values, local ecosystems and global systems. We need to hold each other to account for our decisions and increasingly be prepared to ask the questions that few dare to ask such as, where does our food, clothing, furniture, profits really come from? What are the real costs? How can we adjust to make our practices good for the planet and for people? Inspiration for us all to participate as individuals, family, community, organisation, nationally and globally is provided in Laudato Si’ through cultivating a spirituality of communion.

A Spirituality of communion reflected by authentic leadership

The invitation is “to accept the world as a sacrament of communion, as a way of sharing with God and our neighbours on a global scale” (LS 9). How can we respond to this amazing invitation? St Francis of Assisi lived a ‘spirituality of communion’ with all things and gives us many examples that lead us to a deeper way of connecting with God’s creation. Learning about God’s creatures,

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including humanity, heightens our awareness for ecological conversion and hones our intention to live more compassionately and simply. Speaking about our love and grief for the broken relationships with creation enables us to wake up and act. “To be serenely present to each reality, however small it may be, opens us to much greater horizons of understanding and personal fulfilment” (LS 222).

Speaking about our love and grief for the broken relationships with creation enables us to wake up and act. As leaders, one of the most powerful things we can do is speak with all we encounter about how to care for our common home. We can motivate people by sharing new ways of seeing and being in the world whether from our personal experience, the example of others or stories from wisdom traditions. Laudato Si’ invites us to act in new ways through a spirituality of communion to discover behavioural patterns and systems-based processes that are both good for the planet and its people.

“An integral ecology is also made up of simple daily gestures which break with the logic of violence, exploitation and selfishness” (LS 230).

Collaboration requires empathy, commitment, presence and an ability to respond authentically. In professional settings, the principle of communion is often expressed as ‘collaboration’. Collaboration requires skill, attention and intention. You must be patient and present to all creation, people included, and open to listening to all the ways creation speaks to us. Collaboration requires empathy, commitment, presence and an ability to respond authentically.

Care for the earth through developing an integral ecology “We require a new and universal solidarity” (LS 14). The common good is an underpinning principal in Laudato Si’ and we are invited to develop a new ethic of global solidarity with a long term view. The danger of holding a worldview that technology will fix our problems is clearly addressed.

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As leaders we need to constantly evaluate and consider the impact our leadership and decision making has on the functioning of our immediate eco-systems and habitats. “A healthy relationship with creation is one dimension of overall personal conversion, which entails the recognition of our errors, sins, faults and failures, and leads to heartfelt repentance and desire to change” (LS 218).

We need leadership capable of striking out on new paths, investing in innovative practices and processes that meet the needs of the present with concern for all, including future generations. To genuinely care for our common home and humanity, it is critical to foster a long-term view in our decision making, to consider future generations. “Caring for ecosystems demands far-sightedness, since no one looking for quick and easy profit is truly interested in their preservation” (LS 36). Developing our thinking to stretch into the future requires

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reforming our perspective and a commitment to ongoing learning and practice throughout our lives. In Australia, we often operate from short term thinking combined with an exploitative attitude. Laudato Si’ reminds us of our obligation to the global environment and less developed countries to significantly limit consumption and to assist poorer countries to support policies and programs of sustainable development, such as renewable energy. “We need to strengthen the conviction that we are one single human family” (LS 52) so that we feel at peace to leave vast amounts of coal, gas and uranium in the ground. We need leadership capable of striking out on new paths, investing in innovative practices and processes that meet the needs of the present with concern for all, including future generations. We can no longer accept economic and technically driven justification for projects without seriously considering the environmental, social and cultural impacts. The challenge is to change our habits and develop a new culture of governance informed by the principles of participation, care for people and planet, dialogue and a spirituality of communion with the earth.

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Internationally, for new models of progress to arise, there is a need to change “models of global development…it is a matter of redefining our notion of progress” (LS 194). Similarly, for Australian leaders there is a clear need for transformation through a new process of considered ethics to overturn “the principle of the maximisation of profits, frequently isolated from other considerations” (LS 195) such as the health of ecosystems and wellbeing of people as well as future generations. Laudato Si’ provides some guidance in that “a strategy for real change calls for rethinking processes in their entirety, for it is not enough to include a few superficial ecological considerations while failing to question the logic which underlies present-day culture” (LS 197) such as consumerism, unbridled growth and the throw away culture. The new business objective is to “find forms of interaction directed to the common good” (LS 198) that is good for people and our planet. What is needed is “an agreement on systems of governance for the whole range of so-called ‘global commons’“(LS 174).

Dialogue with all people about our common home

I feel extremely heartened by Pope Francis’ appeals for a new dialogue about how we are shaping the

future of our planet. “We need a conversation which includes everyone, since the environmental challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect us all” (LS 14). Dialogue is a form of action that is often overlooked but in my experience we cannot succeed without it, especially in leading transformation. Learning how to be in dialogue, rather than discussion and debate, is a skill that requires deliberate development and regular practice and will help create a new and universal solidarity. Catholic Earthcare’s approach to developing ‘learning communities for sustainability’ places relationships and dialogue at the centre of our everyday work. To achieve this universal solidarity, we need the process of dialogue to open ourselves and our Church communities to an integrated ecological worldview. A new paradigm is necessary, one that is sustainable, includes intergenerational solidarity and leads to a resilient future.

An authentic leader inspires and motivates full participation, bringing meaning and transformation to our ‘work’ on earth.

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“Let us sing as we go. May our struggles and our concern for this planet never take away the joy of our hope” (LS 244). Succinctly, what would such leadership and governance look like? An authentic leader inspires and motivates full participation, bringing meaning and transformation to our ‘work’ on earth. Ecological leadership recognises the important role of systems and processes, which require significant reform so that we are conscious of the real costs and make ethical decisions that enable profits, people and planet to flourish.

areas: whole organisation planning, spiritual practice, organisational learning and ecological formation programs, reducing our ecological footprint, partnering with ecologically outstanding organisations, cultivating our grounds with endemic local species to encourage biodiversity or growing produce. The Church together with the whole human family has a long way to go to grow God’s kingdom on earth…may our first actions flow from reflecting deeply on Laudato Si’ and may our sustained focus be centred on caring for our common home.

Leadership that embeds ecological values and embodies ecological practice involves being committed to learning how to live wisely, to think deeply and love generously. Leadership that embeds ecological values and embodies ecological practice involves being committed to learning how to live wisely, to think deeply and love generously. In governing our institutions this would be evident in the following six key

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Questions:

1. W hat dimensions of The Francis Effect II does Jacqui Rémond bring into focus for you? 2. H ow has your leadership and decision making impacted on your immediate eco-systems and habitats? 3. I n this reflection and Laudato Si’ we are invited to consider what leadership role ‘every single person’ can take to care for the earth. What leadership can you offer with family, friends and in your workplace? 4. How can you live a ‘spirituality of communion’? How can this manifest through your leadership in your communities and workplace? 5. W hat organisational customs, structures and practices does this reflection and Laudato Si’ challenge you to reflect on and transform? 6. H ow does this reflection and Laudato Si’ challenge your organisation or community to move to a genuine journey of ecological conversion?

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An reflection on Laudato Si’ Ms Thelma Parker Chairperson, National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council Head of Campus, Mt Isa Flexible Learning Centre

“…it is essential to show special care for indigenous communities and their cultural traditions. They are not merely one minority among others, but should be the principal dialogue partners, especially when large projects affecting their land are proposed. For them, land is not a commodity but rather a gift from God and from their ancestors who rest there, a sacred space with which they need to interact if they are to maintain their identity and values. When they remain on their land, they themselves care for it best.” (LS 146) If only you could see through my eyes and witness the beauty, the gracefulness and openness of having our footprints and our spiritual soul being accepted and welcomed into our country – the Georgina River Wangkayujuru Peoples. I am an Aboriginal woman from Wangkayujuru Peoples. We only received native title in June 2014. This was a special time for my mother as she was instrumental in the return of our land back to our mob. Before my mother, came my great

grandmother Ida Toby. She was known as Thanwa to our people. Thanwa was an Aboriginal lore woman for healing and spiritual guidance. “We need a conversation which includes everyone, since the environmental challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect us all” (LS 14). My grandmother had started the conversation, which included Aboriginal people, of how and why

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we use the land and the impact that it has on us in everyday living. The landscape provides us with nourishment for survival, with our way of being – living in ways that share and celebrate the gifts that are provided by our mother earth. The landscape justifies the common cause of who we are as spiritual beings in God’s family. Although there is no word for ‘stewardship’ in our languages, the concept is certainly not foreign. Aboriginal culture is based around the notion that we are a part of the land – a land made by a greater being who has placed the responsibility for its care in our hands. As Pope Francis writes in Laudato Si’, “All of us can cooperate as instruments of God for the care of creation, each according to his or her own culture, experience, involvement and talents” (LS 14). Aboriginal people over thousands of years have been such instruments. The ‘Dreaming’ is testament to the concept as it makes tangible the links between the creator spirit and the people. Aboriginal people understand and have integrated this into our cultural practices. Aboriginal belief systems and culture are formed by the knowledge of this

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responsibility. An example is the totem system employed by many language groups. Depending on the place and time of birth, a totem of an animal is assigned to a child. It is then their responsibility to be a protector or steward for this animal for the rest of their life. Stewardship is intrinsic to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Aboriginal culture is based around the notion that we are a part of the land – a land made by a greater being who has placed the responsibility for its care in our hands. Pope Francis writes of a similar conviction “…as part of the universe, called into being by one Father, all of us are linked by unseen bonds and together form a kind of universal family, a sublime communion which fills us with a sacred, affectionate and humble respect” (LS 89). Pre-settlement Australia was witness to a perfect balance of people and their surrounding environment. It was a way of living that had been maintained for thousands upon thousands of years. The simple act

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of taking only what you need is a supreme example of being a steward of the precious gift of life. As Aboriginal people are thrust into western culture with its excesses and the focus on material possessions, never before has the concept of being a steward for the community been so important. We are all stewards for the next generation. “What kind of world do we want to leave to those who come after us, to children who are now growing up?” (LS 160). As the traditional family unit of Aboriginal people has been disrupted over the years, never before has it been so important for Elders to be given a place and position in being positive role models to youth.

Stewardship is intrinsic to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The Catholic paradigm of stewardship calls us to be grateful to God for the gifts provided and to reciprocate by entwining God in all aspects of our life, not only when it is convenient. Those who live their lives with a sense of entitlement are bound to become slaves to the never ending pursuit for more. Aboriginal Catholics have long strived for the Church community to bear

witness to their God given talents and gifts. The inclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday on the Liturgical Calender has rewarded congregations nationally with artwork, music and displays of the depth of faith that Indigenous people have. I feel that a change in acceptance has been evident in the Church for some years now and it has allowed Aboriginal people the opportunity to become stewards – an opportunity that will not be lost. In his Apostolic Exhortation – Ecclesia in Oceania, Pope John Paul II stated “The Catholic communities of Oceania are increasingly confident about what they have to offer to the universal Church and, in turn, the Church rejoices in the special gifts that these communities contribute” (EO 15). Pope John Paul II stated that the special love of the Creator for each human being “confers upon him or her an infinite dignity” (LS 65). Laudato Si’ shows that the spiritual bond of Indigenous with the environment is a matter of common sense. “Many intensive forms of environmental exploitation and degradation not only exhaust the resources which provide local communities with their livelihood,

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but also undo the social structures which, for a long time, shaped cultural identity and their sense of the meaning of life and community. The disappearance of a culture can be just as serious, or even more serious, then the disappearance of a species of plant or animal. The imposition of a dominant lifestyle linked to a single form of production can be just as harmful as the altering of ecosystems” (LS 145).

Laudato Si’ shows that the spiritual bond of Indigenous with the environment is a matter of common sense. Pope Francis even sketches something that resembles free, prior and informed consent. “In this sense, it is essential to show special care for indigenous communities and their cultural traditions. They are not merely one minority among others, but should be the principal dialogue partners, especially when large projects affecting their land are proposed. For them, land is not a commodity but rather a gift from God and from their ancestors who rest there, a sacred space with which they need to interact if they are to

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maintain their identity and values. When they remain on their land, they themselves care for it best. Nevertheless, in various parts of the world, pressure is being put on them to abandon their homelands to make room for agricultural or mining projects which are undertaken without regard for the degradation of nature and culture” (LS 146). In addition, Pope Francis acknowledges that Indigenous peoples have a key to the solution to the ecological crisis, especially climate change. “In some places, cooperatives are being developed to exploit renewable sources of energy which ensure local self-sufficiency and even the sale of surplus energy. This simple example shows that, while the existing world order proves powerless to assume its responsibilities, local individuals and groups can make a real difference. They are able to instil a greater sense of responsibility, a strong sense of community, a readiness to protect others, a spirit of creativity and a deep love for the land. They are also concerned about what they will eventually leave to their children and grandchildren. These values are deeply rooted in indigenous peoples” (LS 179).

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I would like to conclude with the Jubilee Prayer which was prepared at the NATSICC Leadership Gathering in 1995.

Jubilee Prayer

Father, Our Creator You created all things seen and unseen Listen to my silent prayers as I stand here before you As my weary eyes look back over distant horizons, Back to those days where my people walked. The footprints of my Grandfathers are imprinted on the earth, And the images become real to me. I see my Grandfathers standing tall and strong, Warriors of long ago. I hear them singing. I see them dancing, And my Spirit moves within me. They told of the emus fighting, And the kangaroos picking up the scent of our hunters. The images fade away as I feel the hurt of my people. I can hear the cries of my Grandmothers as they cry for their children. Grandfather, you can see me as I stand here and feel this hurt. Father Creator, is this the purpose of my being here. Or is it your plan to reshape my people To be once again the proud race it once was? Let me walk with you and my Grandfathers Towards the dawning of a proud and new nation. I thank you for my Sacred Being.

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Questions:

1. W hat dimensions of The Francis Effect II does Thelma Parker bring into focus for you? 2. How does the concepts of ‘stewardship’ and ‘taking only what you need’ conflict with present day practices in your workplace, community, home and yourself? 3. Pope Francis writes “these values are deeply rooted in indigenous peoples” (LS 179). From Laudato Si’ and this reflection what might these values be and how does this help inform ways to care for our Common Home? 4. In what ways does Laudato Si’ and this reflection highlight the need for the Australian Church’s continued transformative dialogue with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People?

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Ecological Conversion through

Education Dr Patricia Hindmarsh Catholic Educator

“Environmental education should facilitate making the leap towards the transcendent which gives ecological ethics its deepest meaning. It needs educators capable of developing an ethics of ecology, and helping people, through effective pedagogy, to grow in solidarity, responsibility and compassionate care.” (LS 210) Pope Francis is a teacher who has enormous global status and influence. His educational wisdom was clear in his vision for the schools and educational programs he founded as Jesuit provincial and archbishop in his native Argentina. Through an ecology of learning the Jesuit scholastics under his care not only engaged in rigorous academic studies, but learned to live communally, developing practical virtues as they tilled the vegetable gardens, cleaned out the pig pens, and prepared simple meals for the local poor, whom they visited in the favelas.

Laudato Si’, with its message for all humanity to “care for our common home” (LS), is the work of a scholar, mystic, and practical champion of humanity. The Pope reiterates that humans are made in God’s image, and are stewards of God’s creation, entrusted with the care for the earth, our home. The Pope, like Francis of Assisi, is a lover of the poor. He has chosen to aspire to lead a simple, hard-working and ascetic lifestyle, choosing for himself the way of public transport, unpretentious housing and minimal flying hours, as far as his duties in high office can allow. Those who know him say he loves

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people and being with them. “Social ecology” (cf. LS 138-142) is natural to him. It is said he has a soft spot for white roses, and his love of the natural world is expressed in the lyrical, beautiful prose of Laudato Si’, which is reminiscent of the words of the greatest teacher of all, Jesus, who spoke of the ‘birds of the air’, the ‘lilies of the field’, the ‘mustard seed’ and the ‘vine’ as images capturing the Good News (LS 226).

What a refreshing change the Pope’s teaching is from some of the political jargon that claims constantly in the public arena and through the media that the over-arching purpose of a ‘great education’ is to prepare young people for their participation in the economy. The Encyclical takes its title from the prayer of Francis, the man from Assisi…. “LAUDATO SI’, mi’ Signore” – “Praise be to you, my Lord” (LS 1). The Pope describes St Francis as “that attractive and compelling figure” (LS 10). Catholic school communities

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find in him a great ally as a popular saint and universal patron of the environment. Love for creation and joy in its gifts complement the necessary harsh realities of ecological devastation, which are articulated in this Encyclical – pollution, water shortages, climate change, global poverty, loss of species, and breakdown of human societies – realities well known to environmentalists and to science. What a refreshing change the Pope’s teaching is from some of the political jargon that claims constantly in the public arena and through the media that the over-arching purpose of a ‘great education’ is to prepare young people for their participation in the economy. The Pope challenges the prevailing economic model, which he says is too dependent on unbridled consumption and ever increasing economic growth, even at the expense of the earth’s eco-systems, and too often on the backs of the poor. Many teachers have understood this and felt a certain burden in that understanding, which is so resisted by economic interests. The Pope provides a spiritual and religious framework to inspire ways to respond to these dark ecological realities, which we all must eventually face.

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Pope Francis calls on the family, Catholic schools, seminaries and universities to be the means to develop “awareness of our common origin, of our mutual belonging, and of a future to be shared with everyone” (LS 202). This is not leftist green ideology as some commentators have claimed, but the deep heritage of our Catholic tradition. This heritage is to be shared energetically and humbly with today’s youth through Catholic education. We are in excellent company in doing so. What a far cry from social ecology based on human dignity and community, are those less edifying aspects of education in evidence in many countries. One can think of over-crowded curricula, cramming colleges, attempted suicides by students fearing failure, and the specialisation and atomisation of knowledge into separate unconnected disciplines, making an integrated view of reality a bridge too far. All too often students are pushed to compete at any cost for high marks in external assessment, and aspire to prestigious positions within the existing economic model. Sometimes there is a failure to respect and cherish those who are poor or find learning difficult, and who are judged to lack the potential to contribute economically.

Pope Francis is inviting all involved in the formation of the young to introduce to them the joy of contemplating earth’s bounty, beauty and fragility and to develop a certain sobriety of life that finds happiness, not in the over-accumulation of consumer goods, but in the social love that makes itself felt in every action.

Teachers need to have an integrated understanding of the whole of reality, lest they present atomised learning, oblivious to the possibility of an ecology of learning, as the various subjects form part of an integrated worldview, based on the Good News of Jesus. Catholic educating communities that offer opportunities for their students to learn to care for the earth our home, will find great reassurance and courage in this Encyclical. In such communities students can learn to meditate and give thanks for God’s gifts through prayer and worship. They can practise the art of ‘dialogue’ Pope Francis so often advocates,

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experiencing forgiveness and respect through deep listening and restorative justice, in this way responding to the Pope’s down-to-earth invitation, “not to miss out on a kind word, a smile or any small gesture which sows peace and friendship” (LS 230). Young people can be opened to awe and wonder in exploring the laws of physics and mathematics that guide the universe, and can experience the richness of diverse human cultures. Catholic schools and universities aim to develop a genuine sense of vocation and the value of hard but meaningful work. Outdoor education programs can teach resilience and love for the natural world. Compassion towards those who suffer can find practical expression in classrooms and on campuses that are modelled on the Gospel of Christ. The total life of an authentic Catholic learning environment can provide a context for integral human development, a seedbed where ecological conversion can have a chance to take root. The Pope points out that tinkering around the edges of environmentalism will not suffice to bring about a spiritual awakening, an ecological conversion, both at the personal and cultural levels. Deep cultural change is ultimately called for, but can only be brought about through humans who have been transformed by the

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“civilization of love” (LS 231) that the Church sets before the world as an ideal. This civilization involves a true understanding that all creation exists through the love of God, and is to be shared by all, especially the poorest, those left on the scrapheap of the global economy. The living earth and its people are not ours to exploit.

How do current Catholic educational leaders and policy makers respond appropriately to the challenges presented by our economically dominated culture? In Catholic schools, the teaching of each of the subjects and the total life of the school need to be enriched by the ecological and spiritual realities Pope Francis presents. Teachers need to have an integrated understanding of the whole of reality, lest they present atomised learning, oblivious to the possibility of an ecology of learning, as the various subjects form part of an integrated worldview, based on the Good News of Jesus. Each learning area can shed a particular lens of understanding on this sacred reality. There is growing evidence

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in Australia of initiatives being undertaken to develop theoretical understandings and to model practical solutions to demonstrate how a truly Catholic curriculum might look. This is urgent work, given an added impetus by the Pope’s Encyclical.

years, Catholic education in Australia has grown from the smallest of seeds into a mighty tree. How do current Catholic educational leaders and policy makers respond appropriately to the challenges presented by our economically dominated culture?

There is a particular challenge in Laudato Si’ for Catholic educational leaders of systems and schools. The Pope’s invitation to call into question the prevailing economic paradigm also challenges governments who unquestioningly support that model. Often, these governments are the major sources of funding for Catholic schools and universities. Can Catholic education become too beholden to these sources? Laudato Si’ has attracted the ire of the economic status quo as seen in some of the trenchant criticism of the Pope’s Encyclical in mainstream media.

Pope Francis acknowledges the interest young people have in the environment, but also the demands faced by their own generation, especially in an affluent country like Australia. As the Pope says, “we are faced with an educational challenge” (LS 209). An integral human formation is needed to develop the good habits an integrated Christian and ethical life within society requires. The Pope writes, “Only by cultivating sound virtues will people be able to make a selfless ecological commitment” (LS 211). The Catholic school is faced with the reality that many students come from homes where the cultivation of virtue is alien and children are brought up to be dedicated consumers.

The Catholic bishops of the Australian colonies in the 1870’s made a monumental economic decision to found separate school systems, at huge cost and sacrifice for Catholic families, in order to resist the ‘free, secular, compulsory’ educational philosophy of the time. The bitterness caused by that decision was deep and enduring, with Catholics isolated as Papist and exclusionist. And yet, over more than one hundred and fifty

Teachers, leaders, students and parents will do well to study, discuss and apply appropriately the teachings of Laudato Si’. Sound bites will not serve in the search for a coherent understanding of the Pope’s letter. It is a key document to inform and inspire a probing of the perennial question, what is the mission

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and purpose of Catholic education? The answer lies both in fidelity to our rich Catholic educational heritage and in the timely invitation of Laudato Si’ to engage in “a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet” (LS 14).

Questions:

1. W hat dimensions of The Francis Effect II does Patricia Hindmarsh bring into focus for you? 2. ‘How do current educational leaders and policy makers respond appropriately to the challenges presented by our economically dominated culture’ and to the teachings of Laudato Si’? 3. Laudato Si’ and this reflection invite us to engage in “a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet” (LS 14). With this focus, what is the mission and purpose of Catholic education? 4. What transformation to your understanding of the world and/or your teaching practise does this reflection and Laudato Si’ challenge you to make?

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YoungPeople’s

call to Transform

Miss Terese Corkish Youth Engagement Officer, Catholic Earthcare Australia

“Young people demand change. They wonder how anyone can claim to be building a better future without thinking of the environmental crisis and the sufferings of the excluded.” (LS 13) I must be one of the luckiest people in the world; I’m sitting in a hotel room in Rome, barely twenty-four hours after an incredible march from Rome to St Peter’s Square to thank the Pope for his leadership on climate change. I’m also here to attend the Emerging Leaders MultiFaith Climate Convergence which is an interfaith climate conference hosted by Greenfaith and OneVoices for one hundred incredible young leaders from around the world. I am humbled to be in the company of so many inspiring activists and to count myself as part of a community that will literally change the world, and the particular acknowledgement from the Pope in his address was more than I

could have ever hoped for. Laudato Si’ comes not a moment too soon as Pope Francis writes “Young people demand change. They wonder how anyone can claim to be building a better future without thinking of the environmental crisis and the sufferings of the excluded” (LS 13). We have been demanding change for a long time. It is generations of young people, the generations who have come before me that are still fighting, as well as the generations who are just beginning to understand the scope of this crisis. We are a generation that is conflicted. Not only are we extremely conscious of what kind of planet we are

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inheriting, but we have also “grown up in a milieu of extreme consumerism and affluence which makes it difficult to develop other habits” (LS 209). What climate change requires is not only the development of the technology to replace fossil fuels, but also requires a complete shift in the way we consume. We hear all the time that we need to control our population to deal with this, but as Pope Francis points out, we live in a society where our wealthiest people use an unsustainable amount of resources. In order to sustain a planet full of average Australians, we would require five earths. Sustainable development requires a complete shift in the way that we use and abuse natural and human produced resources.

What climate change requires is not only the development of the technology to replace fossil fuels, but also requires a complete shift in the way we consume. This can be a difficult shift in thinking. As Pope Francis articulates, “This paradigm leads people to believe that they are free as long as they have the

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supposed freedom to consume” (LS 203). But are we truly free? When we choose to make an unethical purchasing decision (either knowingly or unknowingly), we are essentially putting our desires before the basic human rights of others. Although it sounds like an exaggeration, the reality is, as quoted from Pope Benedict, “Purchasing is always a moral – and not simply economic – act” (LS 206).

It is immoral to support or contribute to growth which contributes to the oppression of others. Laudato Si’ is a deeply radical letter and its power may be underestimated. It calls on us to completely shift the way that we interact with our world, it acknowledges that climate change is something that will affect everything and everyone. Throughout the entire Encyclical I was reminded of the writings of Naomi Klein, Canadian author and activist. She is vehemently anti-capitalist, something I have become less and less afraid of recently. For me, being anti-capitalist is about being realistic about human, economic and planetary limitations. It is about acknowledging the intrinsic value of places like the Great Barrier Reef, and endangered species. It is

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about the beauty of God’s creation, completely separate from the economic value of these things.

Every single Catholic needs to acknowledge that our actions have consequences and change accordingly. Free-market ideology is about growth. Growth is normal, but we must acknowledge that there is an end to our natural growth and that there is dignity in this end. Capitalism demands infinite growth, beyond the capacity of humanity and natural resources. It is this demand for growth that robs humans of their dignity through sweatshops and slave trade, calls us to destroy native forests and rainforests, forces species to the brink of extinction, including our own. As Pope Francis says, “we need also to think of containing growth by setting some reasonable limits and even retracing our steps before it is too late” (LS 193). It is immoral to support or contribute to growth which contributes to the oppression of others. Like Naomi Klein, Pope Francis sees climate change as an opportunity to shift the way that we treat each other. The thing is that climate change will be a leveller, there is no-one in

the world who will be unaffected by climate change. This is why there needs to be a massive mobilisation to tackle climate change. Every single Catholic needs to acknowledge that our actions have consequences and change accordingly. In making some of these changes, like using public transport or wearing an extra layer, Pope Francis connects these environmental changes with humanity and love. “Reusing something instead of immediately discarding it, when done for the right reasons, can be an act of love which expresses our own dignity” (LS 211). Pope Francis talks about the concept of integral ecology. “We are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis which is both social and environmental” (LS 139).“We live and act on the basis of a reality which has previously been given to us, which precedes our existence and our abilities” (LS 140). This means accepting our limitations, as well as admitting that we do not live in a vacuum. We depend on nature for our existence, as much as we would like to deny it. With the destruction of our planet, of our beautiful green spaces, of our endangered species, we destroy parts of ourselves. Our emotional and

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physical wellbeing depends on the health of the whole ecosystem.

What Pope Francis is calling for is radical. I think, however, the link that Pope Francis makes between justice and climate change is the most important. As Pope Francis points out, the poor and excluded are often ignored in discussions about climate change and economics, or are tacked on as an afterthought. They should be at the forefront as they will most likely be the first and worst affected by the decisions that are being made in the halls of power. The strong link between climate change and justice is one that needs to be shouted from every pulpit and institution, the message – ‘if you respect the dignity of life, you should be fighting climate change’ is, and should be, central to Catholic social teaching. We see people who will protest against abortion clinics but who will not turn up to a climate march or even recycle, and Pope Francis is making significant steps to make the link between green values and basic human dignity. Especially as young people, we need to make a significant shift in the way that we view our planet and its value. We need to hear

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“both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor” (LS 49). We are getting clear signals from our planet that we are engaging in destructive behaviour but we do not recognise the beauty and intrinsic value of our planet as a reflection of God. In a world of instant gratification, we do not take the time to live in awe and wonder of the incredible nature of God’s creation. We forget that God loves each person, but he also loves each plant and each animal, and all of these have an integrity which warrants their safety and continued existence. This means that where we can prevent suffering, to the planet or to other people, we should always do so. We need, as a generation, as a species, to make active choices to live in harmony with each other and with creation.

…the link that Pope Francis makes between justice and climate change is the most important. This sort of shift in thinking and acting is not easy. What Pope Francis is calling for is radical, it’s going further than most environmentalists will admit that they go, it is calling for a completely new social and economic system that values human dignity and the integrity of creation. In a fast

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paced world of selfies and twitter, this is radical. We no longer make choices, because our path, as young people in a first world, is almost predetermined. We own laptops made from rare earth metals, we own mobile phones made by people who do not earn enough to live on, we wear clothes that are made by people who run the very real risk of being killed in a factory fire, we power our cars with fuel that people have died for, we wear blood diamonds, we eat chocolate made by a company that doesn’t believe that every human being has the right to clean water. Our society is designed to value profit over people and to suggest that we do otherwise is touted as radical and almost horrifying because not only does it challenge existing power structures, it is also extremely hard to live a life that treads both lightly on the earth and on the poor and excluded. My favourite part of the Encyclical is that Pope Francis doesn’t just ask us to recycle more and consider solar panels, he calls us to love without limits and caveats and to turn that love and faith into the sort of action that saves the planet and our species. We are constantly hearing that we are the last generation that can do something about it and the first generation to see the biggest effects, but we have not yet been called to engage in the sort of radical love that

ensures the future of our species. We must eradicate the evasiveness that “serves as a licence to carrying on with our present lifestyles and models of production and consumption” (LS 59) and admit that our lifestyle is unsustainable. We must not only preach love and compassion, but we must live it, radically and faithfully.

Our society is designed to value profit over people and to suggest that we do otherwise is touted as radical and almost horrifying because not only does it challenge existing power structures, it is also extremely hard to live a life that treads both lightly on the earth and on the poor and excluded.

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Questions:

1. W hat dimensions of The Francis Effect II does Terese Corkish bring into focus for you? 2. In this reflection there is a sense of urgency. Why? What for? How does this urgency resonate with your own thoughts and feelings about the state of our planet? 3. What are the ‘link(s) between green values and basic human dignity’? When challenged to hear the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor, what do you hear? 4 In this reflection Laudato Si’ is referred to as ‘deeply radical’, and ‘calls on us to completely shift the way that we interact with our world’ as our lifestyle in Australia is unsustainable if we choose to save ‘the planet and our species’. What are the implications for society, Church, you?

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Encountering Creation in

Families

Mrs Sarah Rose Animator for Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation Franciscan Friars, Province of the Holy Spirit Mr Jassen Rose Director, Androse Music

“What kind of world do we want to leave to those who come after us, to children who are now growing up?” (LS 160) This question, at the heart of Laudato Si’, is important for families in responding to Pope Francis’ call to ecological conversion. We must have the courage to modify and make changes in the way we live as families, to care for our common home, and therefore leave a sustainable home for future generations. We believe that for families, there are three key areas in this Encyclical: experiencing beauty together; giving time to give thanks and to talk; and conversion. “The Lord was able to invite others to be attentive to the beauty that there is in the world because he himself was in constant touch with nature, lending it an attention full of fondness and wonder” (LS 97).

As a family we like to find time together to experience the world around us. For example, go for a regular walk around the neighbourhood, celebrate visiting the family’s favourite holiday place, visit an art gallery, listen to live music together, find places of beauty that are the basis of memories together. This allows us opportunities to experience the unexpected and to inspire awe with each other. Sometimes it is easy to hand our son and daughter a device to keep them occupied for a while, however to experience this beauty it is important to directly see the world around us, therefore as a family we are encouraged to find times where we must turn the computer off, put the iPod away, leave the TV room and remove the headphones.

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“We have to accept that technological products are not neutral, for they create a framework which ends up conditioning lifestyles and shaping social possibilities along the lines dictated by the interests of certain powerful groups” (LS 107). Meal time, a time for a family to gather and be together, can be an expression of beauty. Our children helped us create a small vegetable and herb garden at home. They planted seeds and water the garden. They also help pick what we need for meals. Sitting together for a meal and talking about this creation is a wonderful experience. The joy on their faces and the interaction between generations when they go to visit grandparents and race outside with bowls to pick the tomatoes and cucumbers is a beautiful experience to witness.

It is a challenge of this Encyclical that families adopt a lifestyle that shows conviction and an attitude that cares for and protects the environment. “Good education plants seeds when we are young, and these continue to bear fruit throughout life. Here, though, I

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would stress that great importance of the family, which is ‘the place in which life – the gift of God – can be properly welcomed and protected against the many attacks to which it is exposed, and can develop in accordance with what constitutes authentic human growth. In the face of the so-called culture of death, the family is the heart of the culture of life’” (LS 213). In this Encyclical, we are called to develop an awareness of our origin, of our belonging and of our future together. We can do this through education to make us aware of today’s ecological crisis. We also need to encourage dialogue and to develop a habit and sense of gratitude. Pope Francis emphasises the importance of the family in education. The family is where we first learn the simple gestures; saying thank you, showing love and respect, care for all creatures, how to tidy up. It is a challenge of this Encyclical that families adopt a lifestyle that shows conviction and an attitude that cares for and protects the environment. Parents are entrusted with this important role of ecological education. We try to model this behaviour for our children to show them that it is everyone’s responsibility in the family to be respectful and to show care.

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In a practical way, we can educate by developing a habit of sharing what we have seen good in the world. Each day we can ask, ‘What beauty have we seen today?’ A big old tree in a neighbour’s front yard; people helping each other at a school clean up; family and friends preparing a meal together before sitting to enjoy their creation. ‘How did it make us feel?’ Awareness as a family can be influenced by school, the media and our faith. It was so encouraging when our daughter came home from preschool and told us about recycling due to reading a book during the day with friends and sharing ideas. The discussion then began at home about how we as a family can recycle. When it is reinforced outside the home continued dialogue happens and therefore changes are made. In some instances, children are educating parents, and for this, we must be grateful. Thus a willingness to learn from others is important. We need to develop our ability to dialogue – to speak to each other and to our Creator. Families are a potential school of dialogue that the world needs. A dialogue that is open and respectful, grounded in faith, within the family is encouraging. This will challenge the family and those they are in contact with to live a life of gratitude

to God for creation rather than a life of actions that may harm creation. This is our hope for our creation. “There is a nobility in the duty to care for creation through little daily actions, and it is wonderful how education can bring about real changes in lifestyle” (LS 211). When we become aware that we belong to God’s family we need to look at how to deepen that relationship. What is needed is an ecological conversion, that is, to be inspired by our faith to develop a healthy relationship with all of creation. Pope Francis suggests this can be done by developing good habits through small actions.

…children are educating parents, and for this, we must be grateful. We are challenged to make choices. It will not be easy to break some of the bad habits, but we should try to develop some good habits. For example, teaching our family to avoid using plastic bags, to reuse something like a ‘keep cup’ for takeaway coffee and babycino, to use public transport, to turn off unnecessary lights and other small habits. These small actions are an expression of our love for God’s

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creation. Families may also answer the call to conversion by creating a domestic garden for all to be involved in. They can grow their own food and prepare a meal for everyone to enjoy together. Our children enjoy being outdoors and we talk to them about our garden and encourage them to water the roses and gardenia.

When we become aware that we belong to God’s family we need to look at how to deepen that relationship.

collect them? Find a box to carry the groceries in? Buy more cloth bags? † Drinking bottles: do you re-use water bottles each day? † Recycling: do you recycle your packaging? Do you use the unused side of your paper? † Food: how much wastage is there in your house? Do you buy food as it is needed or do you have a good supply in your pantry? Do you make new creations with leftovers or do you toss food out? † Appliances: what do you consider when you buy a new appliance? What appliances do you use now that you did not use ten years ago?

“A change in lifestyle could bring healthy pressure to bear on those who wield political, economic and social power” (LS 206).

† Power: which switches can you turn off around the house? Do you wear an extra layer in winter rather than use heating?

We feel that there are real practical challenges that families will be facing now and in the future –

† Cleaning: what chemicals do you use around the house? What potential harm can the use of these chemical have on people and the environment? Have you used natural products to clean?

† Lights: do you turn the lights off around the home and office if you are not in the room? Do you think that the lights being turned off can be seen as unwelcoming by potential visitors so you leave them on? † Shopping bags: what do you do when you get to the supermarket and realise you have left the cloth bags at home? Do you go home to

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Responding to this call will be challenging however there are many opportunities for families to take up this call in very practical ways. It can be done, step by step, with dialogue and with faith. It is important that each member of the family takes action in order to protect our precious environment, so that it is sustainable for future generations. We believe the first part of this process is to experience the beauty…take time, look, listen, talk and appreciate it.

choices. Saint Francis said “start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible”. This is the best advice for each of us.

Laudato Si’ is an Encyclical that invites all families to respond to a call for ecological conversion by adopting a lifestyle that is respectful of nature and one that acknowledges the interconnections between society, nature, economics and politics. Saint Francis of Assisi is the best example of one who was concerned for creation and lived in a simple way, in harmony with all. His commitment is one which families can use as an example of how to respond to the ecological crisis by making lifestyle THE FRANCIS EFFECT II: PRAISED BE YOU – ON CARE FOR OUR COMMON HOME

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Questions:

1. W hat dimensions of The Francis Effect II do Sarah and Jassen Rose bring into focus for you? 2. What kind of world do you want to leave the children of today and those generations to come? 3. How can you experience the beauty of creation with your family and friends? What beauty have you seen today? How did it make you feel? 4. How might environmental education and ecological spirituality raise awareness and help change habits in your family and those you interact with? 5. How can you continue on a journey of ecological conversion? What practical actions can you take to do this personally and with your family? What are some good ecological habits you can develop through simple, small actions and gestures?

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Integral Ecology and the work of

Dr Ricki Jeffery Diocesan Director, CentacareCQ

“…we have to realize that a true ecological approach always becomes a social approach; it must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.” (LS 49) In addition to global changes to the climate, Laudato Si’ calls us to seriously contemplate the social, cultural and financial systems that underpin how we live. So what does this call mean in terms of being a leader in Catholic social services, of authentically living and leading the mission of caring for our common home? More importantly how do we better take up the challenge in our services, particularly with the poor and vulnerable? Whilst the primary message of the Encyclical is about the environment, from the perspective of social service provision the conviction that

everything in the world is connected, the human meaning of ecology and the need to invest in people are the underpinning messages as Pope Francis encourages us to “consider some elements of an integral ecology, one which clearly respects its human and social dimensions” (LS 137). Overall in the Encyclical, Pope Francis takes the position that social justice is directly linked to ecology and that these elements are consistent with one another, so much so that we must hold them together in our attitudes and actions. The wellbeing of any society is measured by the situation and regard for the most

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vulnerable members of that society. His consideration of three themes in particular provides a focus for leaders of social service agencies: a true ecological approach to a ‘complex crisis’; the role of technology in society; and the power of consumers to drive change.

The conviction of connectedness, which is a best practice element of delivery models in social services, resonates throughout the Encyclical… For those of us involved in social services, every day we are faced with providing services to individuals and families with complex needs. We are in fact working in the context that Pope Francis describes as a “complex crisis which is both social and environmental. Strategies for a solution demand an integrated approach for combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded and at the same time protecting nature” (LS 139). In this area Pope Francis is clearly instructive about how this must work. We need to ensure that our approaches to community, at all levels, are appropriate to and

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inclusive of the diversity of cultures within our communities. The importance of local culture, and active participation by community members in developing local solutions to complex issues is emphasised. “New processes taking shape cannot always fit into frameworks imported from outside; they need to be based in the local culture itself” (LS 144). The conviction of connectedness, which is a best practice element of delivery models in social services, resonates throughout the Encyclical, asking us to recognise the need to be connected to our own humanity, to each other and realise that “a true ecological approach always becomes a social approach; it must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor” (LS 49). The emphasis on the quality of our relationships and on interconnectedness underpins the discussion on the role of technology. Pope Francis warns of the need to consider more broadly how we embrace technology, “Merely technical solutions run the risk of addressing symptoms and not the more serious underlying problems” (LS 144). Again this part of the Encyclical is instructive, informing us that we need to take care that unintended consequences don’t accrue as our

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industry embraces the business and social aspects of technology. Whilst technology provides us opportunities for greater reach into and more efficient communications with some of our communities, this should not be at the expense of developing or even diminishing strong connections and interpersonal relationships. Pope Francis sees our relationship to the earth and the environment as reflective of the quality of our relationships more broadly and when we relate to one another in a transactional manner, as is often the case with technology, we are likely to be regarding people as a resource at our disposal. This prompts us to consider how sustainable our organisations are culturally and socially, when we increasingly rely on email communication with colleagues or reduce our communication with clients to texts or emails in the name of efficiency. The Pope urges us to broaden our vision so that “technology is directed primarily to resolving people’s concrete problems, truly helping them live with more dignity and less suffering” (LS 112). The temptation to do more online in the name of efficiency brings the risk of ignoring the issue that not all of the population has, or is comfortable with, internet

and other technologies. Clearly the ‘one size fits all’ approach is not a good fit, and “life and the world are dynamic realities, so our care for the world must also be flexible and dynamic” (LS 144).

Pope Francis sees our relationship to the earth and the environment as reflective of the quality of our relationships more broadly and when we relate to one another in a transactional manner, as is often the case with technology, we are likely to be regarding people as a resource at our disposal. The Pope highlights the power of consumers to drive change quoting Pope Benedict, “Purchasing is always a moral – and not simply economic – act” (LS 206). Whilst the resolve to achieve sustainability is high on the agenda for social service agencies, this Encyclical provides a prompt for our agency leaders to be more ecologically intentional in how to achieve that sustainability, particularly in how we

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purchase. In this area of the Encyclical the Pope is far less instructive. However he does lead us to “the moral imperative of assessing the impact of our every action and personal decision on the world around us” (LS 208) which, rather than providing a clear directive on how to lead the mission of caring for our common home, he encourages us to take up the challenge in our services, particularly with the poor and vulnerable. The opportunity to consider how we purchase in our roles in agencies is provided. In fact we have been challenged to demonstrate social responsibility in purchasing processes and decisions.

We can learn much from seeing the praxis of Pope Francis’ message lived out through the lives of those who are the poorest and most vulnerable in our Australian society. CentacareCQ articulates in its 2020 Vision Statement, “There is a visible ecological consciousness that is strategic, systems-based and integrated. We focus on long term impacts for our social, cultural, environmental and financial wellbeing

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rather than on the here and now.” Furthermore in the CentacareCQ Strategic Intent 2014-2017, under the Sustainable Business and Resource Management Goals there is a commitment to visible ecological consciousness with strategies to implement ecological stewardship for financial, social, cultural and environmental outcomes. In the CentacareCQ context this means that we need to overtly demonstrate that our business model contributes to all of the pillars of sustainability. It’s about what we do, and how we use what we have, rather than what we don’t do and don’t have. We regularly check that our activities and programs are sustaining our community, that is, that the way we work builds strength and generates social value, rather than growing dependence. We activate generative dialogue by inviting colleagues to coinquire and co-create more sustainable ways to work by asking: † Is the way we work economically sustainable – are our income streams diverse and not unduly dependent on unsustainable sources? Can we access income without diluting our mission? Are our procurement processes supporting Fair Trade? † Are our approaches to community, at all levels, appropriate to and embracing of the diversity of

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cultures within our community? Are we open to difference? † Do we understand our environmental footprint? Are we working to reduce that footprint, through both day to day activity and long term decisions? This Encyclical will be an important source document for CentacareCQ as we work authentically at living the mission of caring for our common home and more importantly taking up the challenges in our services of achieving a true ecological approach to complex crises, managing the role of technology and our power as consumers. Our work culture can only be transformed if we are consistently conscious of the kind of world we want to leave. As we are the change, as an organisation, we must now change good intention into action. People who are poor and disadvantaged have the least capacity to cope, to adapt, to move and to recover, yet because of their very circumstance, are the ones who live in harmony with ecology with a day-to-day simplicity of lifestyle. Over-consumption is not an available choice, extended use of clothes is a necessity, use of public transport, care for one another and an interdependence of community members is a forced reality. We can learn much

from seeing the praxis of Pope Francis’ message lived out through the lives of those who are the poorest and most vulnerable in our Australian society. Pope Francis speaks of St Francis of Assisi who he says “shows us just how inseparable the bond is between concern for nature, justice for the poor, commitment to society, and interior peace” (LS 10). As we work with the most vulnerable in our communities, it is our responsibility to take this ecological lens and examine the structures around us and respond within our own business structures to the challenges for deep ecological conversion. Francis equating the earth itself as “the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor” (LS 2) is a deliberate attempt to draw to our attention the fact that our relationships with one another, especially the poor and vulnerable, directly influence our relationship with our most precious asset – our common home – the earth. We have a direct responsibility to look at all of those who suffer as a consequence of the poverty of our relationships – those who are made poor, and the earth and its resources, as people and the environment are inextricably linked we see that it is the poor and vulnerable who suffer the most when the earth itself is suffering. Catholic Social Services in Australia can rise to meet this challenge and experience our own ‘ecological conversion.’

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Questions:

1. W hat dimensions of The Francis Effect II does Ricki Jeffery bring into focus for you? 2. What do you understand are the challenges of an intentional ecological approach to: the complex crisis; managing the role of technology in society; and our power as consumers? 3. ‘We can learn much from seeing the praxis of Pope Francis’ message lived out through the lives of those who are the poorest and most vulnerable.’ What can we learn? Why is this insight so important for people from affluent societies like Australia? 4. In real terms, how does this reflection and Laudato Si’ encourage us all to nurture an integral ecology – an ecological conversion, in those working in Catholic social services, other Catholic ministries and your own personal life?

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God’s Creative Love in

Health

Care

Mrs Mary Dalmau Mission Executive, The Holy Spirit Northside Private Hospital

“Some forms of pollution are part of people’s daily experience. Exposure to atmospheric pollutants produces a broad spectrum of health hazards, especially for the poor, and causes millions of premature deaths.” (LS 20) The ministry of healthcare brings together people of diverse faiths and backgrounds. In Catholic health and aged care we do not bring Christ to our facilities. We find Christ every day in our relationships with one another as multicultural, international and spiritual communities. Our hospital and aged care communities have a rich spirituality of being mindfully present and greeting what life presents to us with a wise, respectful and kindly heart. We are given so many every day opportunities to act on behalf of something greater than ourselves and our communities are powerfully strengthened and grateful for these are amazing experiences

of grace. Everything and everyone belongs – Christ holds us together. This connectedness with each other and all of creation is affirmed by Pope Francis in Laudato Si’. “Our very bodies are made up of her elements, we breathe her air and we receive life and refreshment from her waters” (cf. Gen 2:7) (LS 2). By saying this Pope Francis gives me great hope and Laudato Si’ affirms that the work of Catholic health and aged care is relevant and connected to the whole of creation. When we recognise connectedness and care for the other, only good can emerge. A Pastoral Care Practitioner received a referral to support a patient

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and his fiancé after they received a poor prognosis. After learning about the complexities and risks of the surgery they decided that they wanted to marry before the surgery. Our hospital community, with the help of the patient’s brother, quickly mobilised all that was at their disposal and three days later the couple were wed. The effect of this wedding impacted the whole hospital community in its preparation – administration staff, hospital coordinators, the engineering department, nurses, medical oncology team and food services staff – each played a role and as the couple said their vows, all stopped to listen.

Laudato Si’ asks every person to play their part in the web of life. The couple have a long and challenging road ahead but being wrapped in the care and support of our hospital community allowed them to enter this time of extreme vulnerability with love and support. This is just one of countless examples of where our interconnectedness enables life to continue and flourish. “Exposure to atmospheric pollutants produces a broad spectrum of health hazards, especially for the poor…

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people take sick…pollution affects everyone…” (LS 20). Pope Francis does not mince words about the ‘dis-ease’ of our household, our planet and our ecology and our responsibility individually and collectively to care for the health of all creation. Disease demands attention and cannot be ignored. Life is immediately and radically changed. Personal illness and disease are often a wakeup call, a turning point which can open up opportunities to change and find new ways of living and being. We need to ask ourselves if our choices and lifestyle contributes to our health or endangers it. By connecting all elements of creation, Pope Francis is linking the ‘person-centred’ healthcare model with a new model of planetary care. We have an extraordinary opportunity to recognise our unique time and place in this universal story. Laudato Si’ asks every person to play their part in the web of life. We are urged to participate with a new consciousness about the effects of our use of energy, our habits of overconsumption of resources and our lifestyle of indifference. The connection between our choices and the impact these choices have on increasing the suffering of those who are most poor, disadvantaged and vulnerable, are clearly identified and laid out for

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consideration. Pope Francis implores every person to share this pain for the world and to respond with love. In Catholic health and aged care this is a response with which we are intimately familiar. We recognise that times of suffering, distress and illness can evoke deep questions, strong reactions and emotions. Every person has unique ways of finding meaning and purpose which influences and guides how one responds to life’s events. With empathy, openness and compassion, our healthcare workers lovingly attend to wounds and genuinely listen to stories that are shared. We have learned that when we do not do this, the health of our patients and residents suffer. We have an opportunity to apply this learning for our response to this “complex crisis which is both social and environmental” (LS 139). It is time to truthfully name the sorrow, fear, anger, emptiness, confusion and need for healing of our world. Pope Francis is asking us to find the courage to act in solidarity, in an international, multidisciplinary, multi-faith, and harmonious way. He is challenging all of us to face the darkness and pain of our time with insight, openly and together. When we listen and pay attention to where healing can be found, particularly in times of transition,

we seek to clarify what is hidden and ask the following questions: What do we know and feel about what is happening now? Where is strength and healing to be found in deep listening, silence and tears? What can happen through us? Pope Francis encourages us to identify our own and universally shared patterns and to increase not only our sensitivity, but also our response for the health of our common home.

It is time to truthfully name the sorrow, fear, anger, emptiness, confusion and need for healing of our world. The Greek word halen translates as whole and Pope Francis leads us on from such Greek separations of body, mind, spirit and matter to another Greek idea of household, which is the basis of the word ecology. Healing occurs cell by cell, system to system, and is grounded in place, in communities of belonging that nurture and renew vitality. Finding the right path toward healing our world’s living systems and the human family is a spiritual journey. Pope Francis writes of embracing an ecological spirituality grounded in faith and the teachings of the Gospel.

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We must nurture a spirituality, an “interior impulse which encourages, motivates, nourishes and gives meaning to our individual and communal activity” (LS 216). This means that each person might develop a more passionate concern for the protection of our world.

Creation is crying out for wholeness. Deepening an ecological consciousness means becoming increasingly aware that we are all part of one thriving, living system. We are invited to journey contemplatively inward and strategically outward. We can choose thoughts and make choices, which are deliberately inclusive or exclusive, kind or cruel, forgiving or vengeful, generous or selfish, compassionate or judgemental and the impact of these choices will have great significance. The consequences reach beyond us. Planetary consciousness is about coming to terms with the power of our thoughts, beliefs and actions and their system-wide effects. We are at a pivotal time in planetary history. Pope Francis affirms that the Christian story is still relevant. As we allow ourselves to feel the sorrow for the suffering of other beings, we discover compassion more deeply.

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Pope Francis writes: “We were made for love” (LS 58). “Creation is of the order of love. God’s love is the fundamental moving force in all created things” (LS 77). “God is intimately present…The Spirit of God has filled the universe with possibilities and therefore, from the very heart of things, something new can always emerge” (LS 80).

Pope Francis’ message requires the best of ourselves. It is a call for wisdom, imagination, integral medicine and unified consciousness. Laudato Si’ awakens us to a new way of thinking about healthcare and healing. It is a way of thinking which expands our hearts to respect the integrity of all creation and where we understand that the healing we participate in is larger than our individual selves and our separate settings. We are reminded that “We are not God” (LS 67) but that we are called to be agents of healing and compassion. Creation is crying out for wholeness. The services required to meet the health and aging needs of Australia’s population is an opportunity for

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Catholic health and aged care services to live out the mission of Christ in our society in very concrete ways. We discover Christ everyday through our patients and residents and with one another. We are privileged to share in the pain of suffering and celebrate the joy of health and new life. We must take every possible step towards ensuring that our practices are informed and underpinned by ecological practice. I am inspired and humbled each and every day by the love and compassion, the courage and resilience, the imagination and engagement of patients, residents, families and our hospital and aged care communities trying to make a positive difference in the life of one another. For example, one hospital’s executive chef has been involved with the Lotus Orphanage in Mongolia, initially teaching the housemothers to bake bread. All staff wanted to be involved in the fundraising initiatives which contributed to building a bakery equipped with running water, electricity, cooking equipment, commercial ovens, refrigerators and freezers. Despite the challenges along the way the hospital community has been able to make a positive difference to the nutrition of the children at Lotus Orphanage. The chef’s training program has been such a success that a 16 year old trainee has been appointed by the orphanage to bake!

We must take every possible step towards ensuring that our practices are informed and underpinned by ecological practice. The human heart holds more freedom and compassion than we can ever imagine. In the frailty and limitation of life, death is not the final word. Love is. Love is powerful, giving life and healing in so many different ways. It is a way of being with rather than against what is happening. It is being vitally alive, present, compassionate and responsive with intention, gratitude and interconnection. Health and aged care is a global responsibility which requires a local response from both individual leaders and whole communities. As we move towards the future, with technological, political and social advances, Pope Francis’ message requires the best of ourselves. It is a call for wisdom, imagination, integral medicine and unified consciousness. Decisions made for the benefit of human health must account for the mutual relationship between creation and humanity. Strategic plans, frameworks and facilities for health

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and aged care in Australia must adopt a global outlook, one which includes and protects our most vulnerable, upholds cultural traditions and acknowledges the interconnectedness of the environment. This will ensure we truly live a human ecology of wholeness with all of creation. We must have courage and act to achieve peace and health for our global family and our common home.

Questions:

1. W hat dimensions of The Francis Effect II does Mary Dalmau bring into focus for you? 2. What similarities are there between caring for the health of people and caring for all of creation? How is there a connection? 3. What is the relevance and the point being made about the ‘connection of all things’ for Catholic health and aged care; for other Catholic organisations; for you? 4. Why is caring for creation a part of the mission of Catholic health and aged care? What implications might this have for your organisation, workplace or parish community? 5. How do your choices and lifestyle contribute to your health or endanger it? How do your choices and lifestyle contribute to or endanger the health of our planet?

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Business

Ecological Leadership in

Ms Ann Austin National Sustainability Manager, Building, Lend Lease

“It is a matter of openness to different possibilities which do not involve stifling human creativity and its ideals of progress, but rather directing that energy along new channels.” (LS 191) “A technological and economic development which does not leave in its wake a better world and an integrally higher quality of life cannot be considered progress” (LS 194). Pope Francis is clearly a leader, the type of leader who can see the moment when a thought needs to be heard and acted upon. The thought, “we are not disconnected from the rest of creatures, but joined in a splendid universal communion” (LS 220) has been voiced for centuries by indigenous cultures, decades by environmental campaigners and for years in many quiet pockets of the Catholic Church. But now it is a thought voiced loudly in a formal Encyclical, it is a thought placed

clearly in global main stream Catholic conversation, and it is most certainly a thought whose time has come to be heard and acted upon. For over twenty years I have worked in Australia’s property industry, the last ten specifically in sustainability. It is from this perspective that I offer this reflection, from the lens of the corporate world where the evidence of ecological conversion is both wonderfully present and so critically required.

Evidence of ecological conversion in business When it comes to the concerns voiced so carefully by Pope Francis in Laudato Si’, concerns for the

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environment, for the divide between rich and poor, for human wellbeing and peace, business has not been silent. Indeed many parts of the global corporate world have shown astonishing leadership in this space and each year we edge toward a tipping point of sustainability (social and environmental) being an expected purpose for all businesses. Interface Carpets, led by the late Ray Anderson is an excellent example of an ecological conversion. The call for a new way of doing business came from his Australian team, keen to respond well to client enquiries about the environmental impact of their product. A meeting was called and Ray was invited to present on the company’s environmental position. But Ray had no story to tell, yet. He had never thought about his position on the environment and what it meant to business. To Ray’s credit, he went on a deep and personal journey and came to the conclusion that we in business are ‘plunderers’ stealing from generations to come what is not ours to take. Then, like the Pope, he chose to lead and give voice to his revelation. Ray chose YouTube, conferences, targets and strategy as his encyclical. Since that time, Interface Carpets has moved rapidly towards targets to use zero energy, water and waste in the manufacture of their carpets.

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They have eliminated harmful toxins from their products and partnered with the poor of the Philippines and Cameroon to turn discarded polluting fishing nets into carpet backing. Their stories of success are well documented and inspiring. Ray Anderson is worth googling!

Indeed many parts of the global corporate world have shown astonishing leadership in this space The story of Patagonia, makers of adventure apparel, has a similar plot. Founder Yvon Chouinard’s eyes were opened to the reality of his business when he took a flight over the fields that produced the cotton for his clothes. He was surprised by the barren land and toxic lakes left devastated by the impact of the pesticides used in the cotton’s cultivation. Yvon had an ecological conversion. To paraphrase him, once you start living an examined life, you can’t stop. Patagonia now pioneers organic cotton farming, fair labour practices and good working conditions, abolition of human trafficking, recycled polyester, traceable down and the giving of 1% of profits to grassroots sustainability organisations.

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There are many more stories from the world of business like this. Lego has just announced it will eradicate all oil based plastic from its products by 2030 slashing its carbon footprint by 75%; a few years ago Unilever boldly placed sustainability at the forefront of their strategy; Ikea have listed 100 ideas they are committed to action; a residential high rise in Milan hosts 17,000 trees in a true vertical forest; developers are exploring models of affordable housing through concepts like collaborative consumption (meaning sharing more, owning less). Thousands of buildings around the world are now officially rated as ‘green’ by independent systems like Green Star and LEED; electric car and battery power storage leader Tesla has racked up one billion electricity propelled miles from their fleet (saving more than half a million tonnes of carbon emissions); Sydney’s mega development Barangaroo South will not only be carbon neutral but will have the ability to create 1.3 million litres of water a day; Audi is making an electric bike that can travel up to 80 kilometres an hour and there is a solar powered air craft that has made it half way across the Pacific and is still flying! Every day my inbox is filled with examples of business trying to find ways to change the world socially and environmentally. My sustainability

role is now common, just about every large organisation has a sustainability manager or team, sustainability conferences and consultants are everywhere and even the analysts are starting to ask sustainability related questions.

All of the organisations that have taken a bold step in favour of planet and people have also profited financially. Pope Francis affirms “We are always capable of going out of ourselves towards the other” (LS 208). Business is ‘going out of itself’ in a way much more evident than being witnessed by the Church and its structures. Until the publication of Laudato Si’, it seemed that the Church has taken tentative, unconnected steps in ecological conversion. And that’s why this document is an exciting new beginning towards a Church boldly taking leadership and reading the signs of the times. There is much to learn from the noble business stories of our time. They are stories of leadership, generosity, courage and commitment. Also, importantly, they are stories

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The need for ecological conversion in business

the depths of the supply chain of our leading brands; we read of pollution levels caused through resource extraction exceeding those known to be safe; illegal timbers are discovered lurking in hoardings proclaimed as meeting international forestry stewardship standards and whole ecosystems are put at risk in the name of development. The ugly business stories are plentiful, particularly when you look with a global lens.

Laudato Si’ offers us a wake-up call, as business leaders, employees and consumers.

Even for those organisations with solid sustainability stories, teams, plans and targets, so much more is possible. The ecological conversion is far from complete. The vast majority of these organisations still rely on people in roles like mine to be the corporate Jiminy Cricket, to whisper words of conscience in the ears of leaders. Tentativeness abounds, business case justifications are required and cheaper rather than better options are adopted daily.

of financial success. All of the organisations that have taken a bold step in favour of planet and people have also profited financially. Contrary to many traditional business perspectives, business has boomed as buyers flock to a product with some conscience and soul and to organisations that eradicate costly waste.

However, while the Pope’s message may have been on the corporate agenda for over a decade for many businesses, there are many for whom an ecological conversion appears an entirely new thought.

By very definition, if there are leading organisations, there are those that lag. Focus on environmental and social sustainability is not consistent in the business world. For every example of leadership and good practice, there are doubtless ten more of indifference, laziness or outright exploitation (of both people and planet). Weekly we see examples of appalling labour practices hidden in

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The bold leadership of the likes of Pope Francis, Ray Anderson and Yvon Chouinard is rare. Why? Maybe it’s because our boards are filled predominantly with aging men who grew up in a very different business environment where concerns for people and planet were likely seen as altruism at best. The demands they

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place on their CEOs in regards to sustainability are radically different to the expectations and hopes of their gen Y and Z staff and the needs of our struggling planet. The director’s performance in turn is judged by analysts who cannot be relied on to value stocks on much beyond the last quarter’s results. This is a tough terrain to show ecological leadership in. It is no wonder that the strongest environmental progress in the business world has in fact been made in privately owned organisations where change is so much faster and easier to navigate. Perhaps we as consumers have been slow to demand a different offering from business and are either too illinformed, too inward focused or too lazy to make purchasing choices that take into account people and planet. If there is one thing that mobilises business to change, it is customer demand. So what are we demanding? And if we don’t know what we should be demanding, what are we doing about finding out? The web, local council, community organisations all abound with a plethora of information about what constitutes a sustainable choice – are we seeking this information or not? Whatever the reasons, Laudato Si’ offers us a wake-up call, as business

leaders, employees and consumers. A wake-up call to see in our role to do God’s work the need to rethink business through the lens of an ecological conversion; to remember and live by Pope Francis’ words, “A technological and economic development which does not leave in its wake a better world and an integrally higher quality of life cannot be considered progress” (LS 194). If this was a conversation each of the millions of Catholics who work in the world of business brought to the table boldly, intelligently and tenaciously, the world would change. Let’s hope some of Pope Francis’ courage to voice the conversation rubs off on us all. Let us hope the Church and its structures shows business what it can and will do in its own ecological conversion.

It is no wonder that the strongest environmental progress in the business world has in fact been made in privately owned organisations where change is so much faster and easier to navigate. And lastly, may we not ponder too long on whether we will speak up and

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take action. This is a conversation requiring much haste. I recall a favourite prayer to remind us to wake up now to the call of Laudato Si’ – “Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are traveling the dark journey with us. Oh, be swift to love, make haste to be kind!” Henri-Frederic Amiel 19th century Swiss philosopher and poet

Questions:

1. W hat dimensions of The Francis Effect II does Ann Austin bring into focus for you? 2. What business led initiatives for ecological conversion does this reflection and Laudato Si’ challenge the Church and Catholic organisations to follow? 3. Why is the growing business led practice of the triple bottom line – ‘people, planet and profit’ an important concept for Catholic Church agencies to consider? How can this be applied in your parish and workplace? 4. ‘If there is one thing that mobilises business to change, it is customer demand. So what are we demanding? And if we don’t know what we should be demanding, what are we doing about finding out?’ Taking up Pope Francis’ appeal to care for our common home, what are you demanding of business? Of your church? Of your workplace? What might you need to find out?

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A call for conversion from

Environmental Migrants Sr Kateia Kaikai smsm Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Coordinator Missionary Sisters of the Society of Mary, Australian Province

“A very solid scientific consensus indicates that we are presently witnessing a disturbing warming of the climatic system. In recent decades this warming has been accompanied by a constant rise in the sea level and…an increase of extreme weather events… Humanity is called to recognise the need for changes of lifestyle, production and consumption, in order to combat this warming or at least the human causes which produce or aggravate it.” (LS 23) Laudato Si’ is an unusual, relevant and significant Encyclical relating directly to our current ecological crisis. It shows Pope Francis’ concern and care for the poor, marginalised and vulnerable in all of creation. The Encyclical clearly highlights the current state of the planet and the need for ecological conversion. You cannot miss what Pope Francis is asking us to do. We have gone too far with our human activities and started to destroy God’s creation. We continually exploit, harm, poison and

suffocate the goodness and resources that surround us. I take to heart the message and challenge from Pope Francis to respect and care for our common home and to stop consuming far more than we need. We must stand in solidarity and be more considerate and compassionate, willing to compromise our comfortable lifestyle. This change has to start with each of us and extend to our families and communities. No matter who we are, we are obliged to contribute to the healing of our mother earth.

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The impact and damage suffered by Indigenous communities Many may not realise the direct and lasting impact climate change has on many communities. For the 110,000 indigenous like myself living in lowlying island nations, like Kiribati, the time will soon come when we must leave our homes as environmental migrants. But migration with dignity is still considered a last resort for my people. We are fighting collectively – governments, churches, NGOs, action groups – for the implementation of climate change initiatives and holding hope for change that will result in communities remaining safely in their homes living prosperous, harmonious, sustainable and peaceful lives.

Why will a developing, under resourced country like Kiribati be one of the first to experience climate change consequences and disappear into the sea when it plays an almost negligible role in polluting the atmosphere? Over many years our communities have had to work with government

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and churches to become better educated in how to adapt and become resilient to climate change and its consequences on the natural environment. Education programs for adults and children have been essential in helping communities take the necessary actions that will help sustain their islands. For example, planting mangroves, observing environment days by cleaning the most polluted areas and recycling resources. But the questions remain: Why will a developing, under resourced country like Kiribati be one of the first to experience climate change consequences and disappear into the sea when it plays an almost negligible role in polluting the atmosphere? Where will my people go? What story will they tell future generations? My questions are many but no answers are forthcoming. The future of these communities is uncertain and unpredictable. Climate change is already affecting communities in devastating ways. The people of Carteret, a low-lying island 86 kilometres northeast of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, have already been forced to leave their homes because the rising sea level has eroded most coastal lands. The island no longer has fresh ground water, crops are dying and coconut and pandanus trees are falling.

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What has happened to those from Carteret? What will happen to my people? Although climate change is real and right on our doorstep, I still hold onto a belief and hope we will remain living on our beloved ‘mama graun’. Laudato Si’ reignites our fire, commitment and passion to protect and care for our local and global home. The thought of leaving our precious Kiribati, home of our ancestors, traditions, culture and neighbours is too hard to comprehend. Our closest developed nation Australia turns away asylum seekers and puts families in detention centres, returns those under threat of death and persecution to their home nation. Will Australia welcome us?

Many of us have passively sat by, unaware, in denial or inactive against these destroyers of God’s creation. What challenges lie ahead?

Laudato Si’ challenges each of us to care for our common home. First and foremost we must educate ourselves about the shocking environmental reality including facts, statistics and the system of the materials economy.

The current economic system has been created by countries and companies that extract the world’s natural resources. This brutal destruction of our planet is for self-interest – profit and wealth without any regard for the chemical waste they dump, the forests they burn, the giant nets they trawl – the penetration of ‘mama graun’. Many of us have passively sat by, unaware, in denial or inactive against these destroyers of God’s creation.

Stop the culture of exploitation The United Nations Environment Programme estimates the dumping of 2.12 billion tonnes of waste each year. Why is there so much waste? ‘The Story of Stuff’ written by Annie Leonard is a brilliant illustration of what she calls the ‘materials economy’, an economy of exploitation and injustice. Each of us is able to be part of stopping the materials economy, even in a small way.

Read the signs of our time with our hearts Pope Francis writes in his Encyclical “…we are presently witnessing a disturbing warming of the climatic system” (LS 23). Our planet and all its living creatures are in serious crisis because of our own human activity. As a person from Kiribati, the writings of Pope Francis are so current and

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relevant to my people right now. There is no doubt that others around the world suffering a similar fate, feel the same. People affected by unseasonable, irregular and unexpected weather changes are suffering. Often these places are without adequate infrastructure to cope with such crisis and communities already stricken by poverty are burdened even further. The connectedness of each of us with creation is undeniable and ever present, particularly in times of such crisis. “The human environment and the natural environment deteriorate together; we cannot adequately combat environmental degradation unless we attend to causes related to human and social degradation. In fact, the deterioration of the environment and of society affects the most vulnerable people on the planet: ‘Both everyday experience and scientific research show that the gravest effects of all attacks on the environment are suffered by the poorest’” (LS 48).

Solidarity and compassion for the poor

There are so many examples from around the world that easily illustrate how the poor are suffering. In the Philippines for example, poor families struggle just to stay alive. One kilogram of rice, a household

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staple, costs P40 ($1.18) and although this amount is a considerable portion of these families’ incomes, it’s not enough to feed them three meals a day. The price of rice has skyrocketed because of extreme and unpredictable weather conditions including prolonged drought. The deterioration of the environment and its society affects us all, but most particularly and harshly the most vulnerable and poor.

Where is the hope for these people whose global impact is so small but the price they pay is so immeasurably disproportionate? As followers of Jesus aren’t we compelled to be compassionate and stand in solidarity with those most vulnerable and alone? “The impact of present imbalances is also seen in the premature death of many of the poor, in conflicts sparked by the shortage of resources, and in any number of other problems which are insufficiently represented on global agendas” (LS 48).

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Where is the justice and humanity in this? Where is the hope for these people whose global impact is so small but the price they pay is so immeasurably disproportionate? As followers of Jesus aren’t we compelled to be compassionate and stand in solidarity with those most vulnerable and alone?

Call to action

Pope Francis is urging all of us, and in particular well developed and industrial countries, to pay our debt and reduce our carbon footprint, greenhouse gas emissions and better utilise renewable energy. I will never forget protesting with the Pacific Warriors against coal seam gas in the waters of Newcastle in 2014. The event was to support youth living in the Pacific, the real faces of climate change who were willing to fight for climate justice because of the imminent threat to their homes and livelihoods. This peaceful protest turned violent when police in boats began to capsize our kayaks. The Vanuatu delegates’ traditional canoe was broken and the Tongan canoe was left to sink. I was dragged with my kayak back to shore by police. The whole experience was frustrating and very emotional but it strengthens and inspires me and the rest of the protesters to keep up the fight. It is a fight that will provide a possible and

prosperous future for our children who depend so much on what we do today. Whatever action each person takes has to have purpose and meaning for them. For a country like Kiribati that depends so much on land and ocean, like other Pacific islands vulnerable to climate change, urgent climate action is the only way out of the situation. This is one of the strengths and purposes that sustain me to continue taking actions for climate justice with the hope to save my home from disappearing and to provide the opportunity for future indigenous people to grow, live and die where they belong.

Working together as one There is an urgent need to put our heads, hands and hearts together to bring about the change that will lead to a secure, clean and healthy planet for us and for future generations. I believe that Pope Francis’ Encyclical clearly tells each of us that we play a significant role as God’s stewards towards his creation, a gift given freely to us to marvel, to sustain and to appreciate. We are part of God’s creation and any care and love we offer mother earth today will come back to us in abundance. This is the message I wish to share with you, a message of hope for me, for you and the future of our common home.

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Questions:

1. W hat dimensions of The Francis Effect II does Kateia Kaikai bring into focus for you? 2. There is a lot of debate in the community about the effects of climate change and what is happening to our environment. What are your thoughts and feelings? 3. Guided by this reflection and Laudato Si’ what can you better understand about the reality and the challenges to those directly affected by what is happening to their home? 4. ‘Where is the hope for these people whose global impact is so small but the price they pay is so immeasurably disproportionate’? How can you ‘stand in solidarity’ with environmental migrants and those directly affected by rising sea levels and the changing environment? What might you do to help provide hope?

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THE FRANCIS EFFECT II: PRAISED BE YOU – ON CARE FOR OUR COMMON HOME

Living an

Ecological Vocation

“ I urgently appeal... for a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet.” Laudato Si’ 14, Pope Francis

On Care for our Common Home

THE

FRANCIS EFFECT II Foreword by Yeb Saño

Pope Francis appeals to us all to “cooperate as instruments of God for the care of creation, each according to his or her own culture, experience, involvements and talents” (LS 14). The Encyclical is full of hope and inspiration as well as many simple and complex challenges. The reflections contained in these pages bring these hopes, inspirations and challenges to life in our Australian and global context. There are many ways that we can each participate in our own ‘ecological conversion’. Following are just some actions that you can be involved in. They may lead you to other ideas so that caring for our common home becomes an integral and essential part of your everyday life.

Personal Action † Read Laudato Si’ and reflect deeply on the key messages and share them with others – family, friends, colleagues. † Seek like-minded people and share this journey of care for our common home. † Talk to your parish community about starting a group to lighten your footprint and promote environmental education. † Host a program for small groups using Catholic Earthcare’s Encyclical Discussion Guide and watch the Encyclical video – www.catholicearthcare.org.au.

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† Look at the Further Reading and Website References sections of this book for excellent resources to inform, inspire and support your actions. † Rediscover your sense of wonder and awe of creation and encourage a conversion of heart – e.g. engage soulfully and pray deeply in nature: walk on the beach, stop and smell the flowers, sit at the foot of a rainforest waterfall, go for a bushwalk, tend a garden, climb a tree, swim in the ocean, plant a tree, stand atop a mountain, enjoy the feeling of grass, dirt, water beneath your feet and between your toes. † Separate rubbish and recycle items – e.g. printer cartridges, mobile phones, electric cables and batteries. Seek out specific recycle bins often found where these items are sold. † Reuse instead of disposing. † Use fewer paper and plastic products – e.g. use a re-usable water bottle, use cloth bags for shopping. † Reduce water consumption – e.g. take shorter showers, fix leaking taps. † Compost instead of disposing of food. † Celebrate ‘Meatless Friday’ to reduce your carbon footprint. † Purchase ethically produced goods and services. † Check your consumption – e.g. food, electricity, gas, solar panels and use energy-efficient appliances. Move to renewable sources of energy where possible. † Share your voice publicly, call for strong leadership and affirm positive governance for an ecologically sustainable society. † Consider where your investments, including superannuation, are placed. † Use public transport, carpool, walk, or ride a bike.

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THE FRANCIS EFFECT II: PRAISED BE YOU – ON CARE FOR OUR COMMON HOME

Organisational and Community Action † Examine Laudato Si’ and the relevant chapter(s) to your sector, ministry or workplace and discuss at your next executive leadership, board or staff meeting. † Use the ideas and questions from the reflections as formation during your professional development days or retreats. † Ensure that learning about care for God’s creation is part of formation for both adults and youth, so that it becomes ‘core’ business. † Complete an energy audit identifying where energy consumption could be reduced. This benefits both the earth and your organisation’s budget. † Join Catholic Earthcare’s National Energy Efficiency Network and cut your energy consumption. † Investigate the possibilities for using solar power. † Buy energy efficient appliances and conserve electricity by turning off lights, air conditioning and stand-by appliances during non-business hours. † Use recycled and non-carbon paper and/or convert to soft-copy usage. † Replace disposable cups, plates and cutlery with washable or compostable items. † Implement a ‘people and planet first’ approach for business in a strategically integrated model for progress in organisational documents, in values, in activating behaviours. † Donate leftover food to local soup kitchens or cook only what will be reasonably consumed. † Offer employees incentives for using public transport or carpooling. † Plant trees on your institution’s property, especially local species.

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Ecological Examen

The Ecological Examen is based on the Ignatian Examen which is a method of reviewing your day in the presence of God. The five steps of the Ecological Examen may assist you in setting time aside in your day to give thankful reflection on your relationship with God and creation. 1. All creation reflects the beauty and blessing of God’s image. Where was I most aware of this today? 2. Can I identify and pin-point how I made a conscious effort to care for God’s creation during this day? 3. What challenges or joys do I experience as I recall my care for creation? 4. How can I repair breaks in my relationship with creation, in my unspoken sense of superiority? 5. As I imagine tomorrow, I ask for the grace to see the Incarnate Christ in the dynamic interconnections of all creation. Conclude with the prayer of Jesus: The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Source: Joseph Carver, SJ

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Acknowledgements

A great many conversations, work and hours go into completing a project like The Francis Effect II and we would like to sincerely thank every person who assisted us in getting to publication. Of particular mention is Yeb Saño for his contribution and availability in providing the foreword. We thank Sandra Marta from Smarta by Design, Danielle Achikian from Danielle Achikian Consulting and the Catholic Mission, Catholic Religious Australia and Catholic Earthcare Australia communities for their creativity, intelligence and patience. It has been a privilege to bring together the perspectives of all the authors in this book. Without their contribution and commitment to the project, this book would not have been possible and we sincerely thank them. Laudato Si’, like Evangelii Gaudium before it, is a document of our time and place. We hope The Francis Effect II: Praised Be You – On Care for our Common Home enables all those who engage with this Encyclical to better connect with and care for all creation. The Editors

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Contributing Authors Fr Denis Edwards Professorial Fellow, Australian Catholic University

Denis Edwards is a professorial fellow at the Australian Catholic University, Adelaide campus. He is a priest of the Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide, involved in Tranmere parish. He is a member of the national Lutheran-Roman Catholic Dialogue, and the national Australian Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission and involved with the South Australian Council of Churches. Recent books include Ecology at the Heart of Faith, How God Acts: Creation, Redemption and Special Divine Action, Jesus and the Natural World and Partaking of God: Trinity, Evolution and Ecology. Fr Gregory Jacobs SJ Parish Priest, Holy Family Parish, Mt Druitt, Catholic Diocese of Parramatta Gregory Jacobs is a Parish Priest in western Sydney. In his parish he works to integrate parish ministry and environmental concern by integrating the use of land, water, energy and natural biodiversity harmoniously and encourages the community to do the same. Greg was born in Ballarat and grew up in Wagga Wagga. He lived there for twenty years before joining the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1996. He has degrees in Chemistry, Theology and Education, History and Philosophy of Science and more recently studied Science and Religion in Edinburgh.

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Deacon Joe McKay ofm Order of Friars Minor, Province of the Holy Spirit Joe McKay is a member of the Order of Friars Minor, Province of the Holy Spirit. He grew up in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney and then lived in Wollongong. He is a member of the Province’s Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation committee and serves as a Deacon in the Townsville Diocese. Prior to joining the friars Joe worked as a chemical engineer. Joe has a Masters of Theological Studies from Yarra Theological Union. He loves bushwalking and sharing Franciscan spirituality with others. His family never lets him forget that he once referred to a coal mine as ‘beautiful’. Mrs Jacqui Rémond Director, Catholic Earthcare Australia Jacqui Rémond is a mother of two children under eight, with over eighteen years experience as an environmental educator and advocate. She is National Director of Catholic Earthcare Australia, the ecological agency of the Catholic Church in Australia, which is mandated, through the activities of research, education, advocacy and outreach to give leadership in responding to Pope John Paul II’s call for an “ecological conversion” of humanity. Among other things Jacqui is developing partnerships and ecological conversion initiatives, such as ASSISI and NEEN, to enable the Catholic Church in Australia to become a leader in ecological sustainability. Jacqui is Convenor of the National Council of Churches Australia Eco Mission Project, the NSW Eco Mission Network and represents the Catholic Bishops on the Australian Education Sustainability Alliance and the Justice & Peace Advisory Council in Sydney.

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Ms Thelma Parker Chairperson, National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council Head of Campus, Mt Isa Flexible Learning Centre Thelma Parker is an Aboriginal woman from Wangkamana/Warluarra and Kalkadoon clan group. She was born in Cloncurry and lived the majority of her early life in western Queensland. Thelma has vast experience in achieving positive educational outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. She is the Chairperson for the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council (NATSICC) and works as the Head of School at the Edmund Rice Education Australia Mount Isa Flexible Learning School. Dr Patricia Hindmarsh Catholic Educator Patricia Hindmarsh has been a teacher and educational leader within Catholic Education at primary and secondary level. She spent five years as Coordinator of the Sydney-based Mission and Justice Education Program and has lived and worked in the remote Indigenous Warmun Community in Western Australia. Trish was a founding member of the Catholic Earthcare Australia Committee and has a continuing interest in peace, justice and ecology. Trish spent six years as a senior consultant within the Sydney Catholic Education Office and five years as Director of Catholic Education in Tasmania. Her doctoral studies relate to education for sustainability within Catholic school settings. Miss Terese Corkish Youth Engagement Officer, Catholic Earthcare Australia Terese Corkish is a twenty-two year old climate activist who has been involved in the climate movement since the age of 15. She joined the Catholic Earthcare Australia team as the youth engagement officer in 2014. Terese has grown up in a family environment which has supported her passion for climate justice. Terese is also an advocate on other progressive causes such as gender equality, refugees and human rights. She believes her passion is intricately linked with her faith and how much she values social justice. Terese sees her faith as a call to take action.

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Mrs Sarah Rose Animator for Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation Franciscan Friars, Province of the Holy Spirit Mr Jassen Rose Director, Androse Music Sarah and Jassen Rose are married with two children, ages four and two, and live in Sydney. Sarah worked as a secondary school geography and religious studies educator and coordinator before being appointed the Animator for Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation for the Franciscan Friars. She is a member of the Australian Catholic Social Justice Council, the Geography Teachers Association of NSW and has done project work for the Board of Studies, Teaching and Educational Standards NSW. Jassen is a professional musician who graduated from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with qualifications in organ, conducting and vocal pedagogy. He is the Musical Director at All Saints’ Anglican Church Woollahra, and the Musical Director of Di Canto, a group of vocalists who regularly perform at private functions. Jassen has worked for the Commonwealth Public Service and at Notre Dame University (Sydney Campus). One of Jassen’s most treasured memories was conducting the Collegium Choir in a special performance for His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI during the World Youth Day celebrations in 2008.

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Dr Ricki Jeffery Diocesan Director, CentacareCQ Ricki Jeffery is currently the Diocesan Director of CentacareCQ, working to develop strategies based on research and evidence to ensure CentacareCQ is sustainable and continues to provide services to the communities it serves. With a split focus on the right now, near future and long term, Ricki is responsible for Centacare’s activities meeting current need, preparing for medium term demand and paving the way for long term sustainability. Previously, Ricki has worked in regional economic development with experience with regional communities in both Australia and the USA investing in civic engagement, looking at capacity not deficiency and in coaching community leaders. Mrs Mary Dalmau Mission Executive, The Holy Spirit Northside Private Hospital, a partnership of St Vincent’s Health Australia and the Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters. Mary Dalmau has a background in nursing, pastoral care, supervision, counselling and spiritual direction. She is responsible for building a strong community and inclusive culture committed to the healing mission and gospelinspired values of Catholic health and aged care. Mary provides professional leadership – integrating intelligent, articulate and practical spirituality in the day-to-day, highly complex, acute health setting while ensuring ethical and social expectations as a Catholic organisation are modelled.

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Ms Ann Austin National Sustainability Manager, Building, Lend Lease Ann Austin has a rich and eclectic career history spanning over 20 years in the property sector from graduate beginnings on construction sites, through to eight years in learning and organisational design roles and more recently a decade in corporate sustainability. She holds an honours Degree in Architecture and an Executive Masters of Business Administration. Ann is a past winner of the National Association of Women in Construction’s Sustainability Award and a member of her local parish’s ecology group. Ann’s passion for sustainability is inspired by her hope for a fabulous future for her three children and her spirituality. In her down time, Ann finds joy in writing and singing children’s music (www.singtome.com.au) and swimming. Sr Kateia Kaikai smsm Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Coordinator, Missionary Sisters of the Society of Mary, Australian Province Kateia Kaikai was born and completed her schooling in Kiribati, Central Pacific. Sister Kateia joined the Marist Missionary Sisters and was professed in Auckland, New Zealand in 1995. Three years later, she graduated from Corpus Christi Teachers’ College in Fiji. After a short time teaching in Bougainville, she completed her Bachelor Degree in Education at the Australian Catholic University. In June, 2011, after teaching in Kiribati, Kateia was appointed as the Marist Missionary Sisters Coordinator for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation in the Australian Province. In addition to leading this critical ministry for the sisters, Sister Kateia also teaches street boys at the Marcellin Foundation School in the Philippines.

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Further Reading Armstrong, R.J. & I.C. Brady (1982). Francis and Clare. The Complete Works. New York, NY: Paulist Press.

Berry, T. M., Clarke, T. E. et al. (1991). Befriending the Earth – a Theology of Reconciliation between Humans and the Earth. New London, CT: Twenty-Third Publications. Berry, T. (2000). The Great Work: Our Way Into the Future. New York, NY: Broadway Books. Davies, P. (1992). The Mind of God: Science and the Search for Ultimate Meaning. London: Penguin. Deane-Drummond, C. (2003). The Ethics of Nature. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Blackwell. Delio, I. (2004). Franciscan Prayer. Cincinnati, OH: St Anthony Messenger Press. Delio, I., K. Douglas Warner and P. Wood. (2008). Care for Creation: A Franciscan Spirituality of the Earth. Cincinnati, OH: St Anthony Messenger Press. Edwards, D. (1992). Made from Stardust: Exploring the Place of Human Beings Within Creation. North Blackburn, VIC: Collins Dove. Edwards, D. (2004). Jesus and the Cosmos. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock. Edwards, D. (2006). Ecology at the Heart of Faith: The Change of Heart that Leads to a New Way of Living on Earth. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis.

Fox, M. (1988). The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance. San Francisco, CA: HarperOne. Johnson, E. (2014). Ask the Beasts: Darwin and the God of Love. London: Bloomsbury. McDonagh, S. (1990). The Greening of the Church. Scoresby, VIC: Canterbury Press. Nothwehr, D.M. ed.(2002). Franciscan Theology of the Environment: An Introductory Reader. Quincy, IL: Franciscan Press. Nothwehr, D.M. (2012). Ecological Footprints: An Essential Franciscan Guide for Faith and Sustainable Living. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press. Stockton, E. (1986). This Land Our Mother. Surry Hills, NSW: CCJP. Swimme, B. & Berry, T. (1994). The Universe Story : From the Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era – A Celebration of the Unfolding of the Cosmos. San Francisco, CA: HarperOne. Teilhard de Chardin, P. (1959). The Phenomenon of Man. New York, NY: Harper. Vaney, N. (2004). Christ in a Grain of Sand: An Ecological Journey with the Spiritual Exercises. Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press.

Edwards, D. (2012). Jesus and the Natural World: Exploring a Christian Approach to Ecology. Mulgrave, VIC: Garratt. Edwards, D. (2014). Partaking of God: Trinity, Evolution and Ecology. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press.

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Website References Animals Australia: www.animalsaustralia.org

Australian Catholic Bishops and the Environment: www.catholicaustralia.com.au/links/environment Australian Religious Response to Climate Change: www.arrcc.org.au Caritas Australia: www.caritas.org.au Catholic Climate Covenant: www.catholicclimatecovenant.org Catholic Concern for Animals: www.catholic-animals.org Catholic Earthcare Australia: www.catholicearthcare.org.au Catholic Mission: www.catholicmission.org.au Catholic Religious Australia: www.catholicreligiousaustralia.org.au Earth Link Online Newsletter: www.earth-link.org.au/index.html Eco Catholic Blog – National Catholic Reporter: www.ncronline.org/blogs/eco-catholic Eco Schools: www.kab.org.au/eco-schools Environmentally Friendly Office, School & Craft Products: www.buyecogreen.com.au Faith Ecology Network: www.faithecology.net.au Friends of the Earth: www.foe.co.uk Global Catholic Climate Movement: www.catholicclimatemovement.global/fasting-for-climate-justice/ Green Christian: www.greenchristian.org.uk Keep Australia Beautiful: www.kab.org.au Let the Son Shine – An Australian Catholic Response to Climate Change: www.columban.org.au/Archives/features/2013/let-the-son-shine-2013-edition National Council of Churches Australia – Eco-Mission Project: www.ncca.org.au/departments/eco-mission On Holy Ground: www.onholyground.edu.au Operation Noah: www.operationnoah.org Season of Creation: www.seasonofcreation.com Australian Association for Environmental Education: www.aaee.org.au Terracycle – Recycling non-recyclable waste: www.terracycle.com.au Uniting Earth Web: www.unitingearthweb.org.au

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Notes

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Notes

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God of love, show us our place in this world as channels of your love for all the creatures of this earth, for not one of them is forgotten in your sight. Enlighten those who possess power and money that they may avoid the sin of indifference, that they may love the common good, advance the weak, and care for this world in which we live. The poor and the earth are crying out. O Lord, seize us with your power and light, help us to protect all life, to prepare for a better future, for the coming of your Kingdom of justice, peace, love and beauty. Praise be to you! Amen. Taken from A Christian prayer in union with creation (LS 246)

What is the Francis Effect and why is it significant for us today? In this book, twelve prominent Catholic leaders, from a variety of sectors and ministries, provide their perspectives on the Apostolic Encyclical Laudato Si’. They offer readers insights and challenges to living a life of true ‘ecological conversion’, one that embraces the inter-connectedness of all of creation. This compendium of articles emerging from the reflection of the authors on the words of Pope Francis in Laudato Si’ will prove of interest and of practical use to those who wish to respond in heart and mind to the message of the Pope. Pope Francis entreats us to live out the ‘ecological conversion’ to which he and his predecessors have called us, and the Encyclical itself is a broad ranging exploration of how this call can be understood. The articles in this book continue the exploration. The Encyclical is addressed not just to the Catholic world or even to the Christian world, but to all people of any faith and no faith, “to all men and women of good will.” The Pope notes that in this he is following the lead of Pope Saint John XXIII thirty years ago in publishing Pacem in Terris. The Francis Effect II draws on the work and prayerful reflection of authors representing a diversity of professional backgrounds, services and ministries. For this reason alone it will have wide appeal. I commend this publication to you and congratulate the organisers and authors for their generous and timely action in making this available. The Pope ends the Encyclical with a prayer, one line of which reads “Give us the grace to feel profoundly joined to everything that is”. Sister Berneice Loch rsm, President of Catholic Religious Australia

“I urgently appeal, then, for a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet. We need a conversation which includes everyone, since the environmental challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect us all.” Laudato Si’ 14, Pope Francis