With the launching of the Franciscan Earth Care Initiative in November 2018, the Conventual Franciscan Friars of the Province of Our Lady of Consolation have committed to implementing the message and goals of Pope Francis’s landmark encyclical, “Laudato Si.” This encyclical is a worldwide wake-up call to help humanity understand the destruction humans are rendering to the environment and their brothers and sisters.
The friars have met this challenge head-on throughout the province with solar installations at Mount Saint Francis, IN, Las Cruces, NM, San Antonio, TX, and even in Zambia. They have installed geothermal heating and cooling systems. Newly added water catchment systems (with filtration) and electric vehicle charging stations directly address local environmental needs.
The friars also wish to explore the many philosophical, theological, and cultural assumptions that threaten humans’ relationships with nature and with each other. The friars have committed themselves to economic environmentalism by working with their investment managers to divest from fossil fuels, arms, and other companies not in line with Catholic social justice teachings. As friar Paul Schloemer, Treasurer for the Province, says, “We cannot divorce our fiscal responsibility from our social responsibility to the common good, including care of our common home.”
Other initiatives taken by the friars at their last Chapter Assembly include: ensuring that new equipment, materials, and appliances are environmentally sustainable and reduce energy. Also, creating partnerships with local parishes, universities, and community organizations to broaden the effect of environmental action. The friars will be planning community events and programs at their retreat centers to educate children, families, and others about what they can do to protect and restore our planet.
These environmental efforts are not new to many of our friars. Friar Joe West, pastor of St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Clarksville, IN, embarked on updating the lighting in the church eleven years ago. “The lighting fixtures were tough to change…we reduced power usage in the nave of the church from over 25,000 watts to our present 4,800 watts.” The rest of the parish campus, including the school, gymnasium, and friary, were upgraded, and Fr. Joe hopes that they can soon add solar panels to the roof.
Another exciting development is the addition of Rev. Henry Atkins, an Episcopal priest who, along with his wife, generously offered to move to Las Cruces, NM from Houston, TX so that he could assist the friars of the province in the implementation of the goals of Laudato Si’. Rev. Atkins’ vision is to get people involved on a large scale and to address concerns and explore solutions with local leaders and government officials. He rightly points out Pope Francis’s call to “All people of goodwill.”
In many ways, Pope Francis and the friars through their commitments are reclaiming an older paradigm of a relationship with creation rather than exploiting creation. St. Francis espoused this view of humans being in relationship with creation through his “Canticle of Brother Sun,” in which elements of the environment are referred to as “brother” or “sister.” The great medieval theologian, St. Bonaventure, built upon and systematized these ideas. According to friar Keith Douglas Warner, OFM, “St. Bonaventure’s theology of God and creation emphasizes systems of interdependence and the role of the senses in perceiving God’s activity in the material world.” Saint John Paul II in the opening sentence of his 1990 World Day of Peace message states: “…there is a growing awareness that world peace is threatened not only by the arms race, regional conflicts and continued injustices among peoples and nations, but also by a lack of due respect for nature, by the plundering of natural resources and by a progressive decline in the quality of life.”
Join us in caring for our common home. Please visit:
https://www.franciscansusa.org/franciscan-earth-care-initiative/
