IMAGE: Georgia Bulletin Photo By Michael Alexander
By Andrew Nelson
CONYERS, Ga. (CNS) — Mimi
Soileau goes nearly weekly to see what vegetables are ripe to be plucked from
garden beds beside her parish church, St. Pius X.
Time spent with her hands
in the dirt is nothing new for this 85-year-old master gardener. She’s
currently harvesting hearty kale, eggplant and broccoli from the raised beds, a
new initiative of the parish garden ministry.
These vegetables go to
the parish’s Society of St. Vincent de Paul conference, which has given the fresh
produce to families in need since the growing season began.
The recent strong
environmental message from Pope Francis boosts her spirits.
“It’s an obligation
for us to preserve our earth, to keep it healthy. (Pope Francis) is my kind of
man,” Soileau told The Georgia Bulletin, Atlanta’s archdiocesan newspaper.
Ray Supple, who modeled
the project after a garden he saw at St. Brendan the Navigator Parish in
Cumming, Georgia, said church members embraced it.
“We went to
different organizations and everybody thought it was a great idea,” he said. “(St. Vincent de
Paul) is thrilled to be able to give fresh vegetables.”
This resourcefulness is
what a new guidebook hopes to inspire in individual Catholics and parishes in
the Atlanta Archdiocese. It’s encouraging the faith community to better care
for the earth, from forming a parish “green team” and using rain
barrels to conserve water to saying grace before meals and sharing rides to
Sunday Mass.
Spurred by Pope Francis’
environmental encyclical, “Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home,”
this 38-page action plan offers a menu of initiatives for parishes and families.
“It’s not theology,
it’s down-to-earth,” said Rob McDowell, a geologist and co-author of the
report. “We didn’t really invent anything.”
Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory
of Atlanta commissioned the action plan a year ago upon learning that Pope Francis planned to issue an encyclical
on the environment. It was developed by a team of scientists from University of
Georgia and other scientists after the release of the encyclical in June.
McDowell said his
Catholic faith has been formed by the church’s rich heritage of special care for
the planet, going back more than 1,000 years to St. Augustine and creation
spirituality. The three most recent pontiffs built on each other’s teachings: St.
John Paul II critiqued consumerism; Pope Benedict XVI had solar panels
installed at the Vatican and was dubbed the “green pope”; and Pope
Francis has written the first encyclical dedicated to environmental concerns.
McDowell called the papal
document a high mark in the church’s teaching.
A professor at Georgia
Perimeter College and a member of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
Parish in Atlanta, he said no area of Georgia is immune from the changing
environment.
Georgia’s seacoast cities, such as Tybee Island and
St. Marys, are now planning to deal with
rising sea levels. Farmers face disrupted planting seasons with hotter
temperatures and fewer cool days. The Atlanta area faces more severe flooding
as heavy rain is forecast to replace moderate rainfall.
Georgia is “blessed
with abundant natural resources,” the report says, including “rich
biodiversity” in the north Georgia mountains and one-third of all of the
remaining salt marshes on the U.S. East Coast.
The report lists
categories of concern including: energy efficiency and conservation; recycling;
transportation; water use; buying and sharing food; sustainable landscapes;
helping those in the congregation most impacted by extreme weather changes;
practical ways to inform and engage young people in the message of the
encyclical; and political action.
Within each category are
a series of suggested actions, ranked from the easiest, such as shopping with
reusable bags, to moderate and advanced changes, such as installing an electric
car charging station on parish or school grounds.
The plan proposes that
churches or schools ask for an energy audit by the nonprofit Georgia Interfaith
Power & Light to help them find energy savings. It recommends faith
communities serve their vulnerable members by helping those likely to be most
hurt by severe weather. It also advises helping enlist them in appropriate
services, such as the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program or cooling
stations in the summer.
Staff from the Atlanta archdiocesan
Justice & Peace Ministries have visited parishes to educate Catholics about
the encyclical, from its purpose to the details. Director Kat Doyle said many
people come with biased notions about it, so she tells people “what it
says and what it doesn’t say.”
Its key point calls for “integral
ecology” where human activity and the natural environment are balanced,
she said. The pope looks at the world through a faith-based lens, not politics
or science, she said, although he praises both. The goal is to create dialogue
on the issue and encourage people to take action on behalf of the environment,
she said.
Steve Valk,
communications director for Citizens’ Climate Lobby, who belongs to the Shrine
of the Immaculate Conception Parish, said the pope’s message is changing minds.
As a Catholic, he said, “I
try to follow the teachings of Christ. The biggest thing he imparted to us was
to take care of each other. The people who will be hurt the most will be the
poor. From a faith perspective, it’s two things: us taking care of each other
and also us being good stewards of the world.”
Archbishop Gregory said
the environment requires personal stewardship by Catholics.
“What will it take
to protect our world and its societies for future generations? Living a life
dedicated to simplicity in the spirit of St. Francis while always looking out
for our most vulnerable brothers and sisters,” he wrote in the report.
– – –
Nelson is a staff writer
at The Georgia Bulletin, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Atlanta.
– – –
Copyright © 2015 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.