2018 joint statement on climate justice by Bishops’ Conferences

2018 joint statement on climate justice by Bishops’ Conferences

The following appeal is issued by the Church leaders of the continental groupings of episcopal conferences. It is addressed to government leaders and representatives and it calls on them to work towards an ambitious implementation of the Paris Agreement for the people and the planet. In particular, we ask for a COP24 Summit (Katowice, Poland, December 2018) able to prove a milestone on the path set out in 2015 in Paris.

Faced with the growing urgency of the current ecological and social crisis, building on and inspired by the work done on the ground over the past three years by so many courageous actors around the world - within the Catholic Church and beyond - to promote and “live” the messages carried by the Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’, we call for ambitious and immediate action to be taken in order to tackle and overcome the devastating effects of the climate crisis. These actions need to be taken by the international community at all levels: by persons, communities, cities, regions, nations.

We have heard “the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor”. We have listened to the call of the Holy Father, Pope Francis, and we stand in solidarity with our Brother Bishops who have already taken stances against the limitless and dangerous use and exploitation of our Mother Earth’s resources, as well as our current models of development, supported by financial institutions and systems that put life, community, solidarity, and well-being on earth after profit, wealth and unbridled growth. We must be prepared to make rapid and radical changes (LS171) and resist the temptation to look for solutions to our current situation in short-term technological fixes without addressing the root causes and the long-term consequences.

Our call is based on the following principles:

Urgency: “Time is a luxury we do not have”. There is a growing awareness in the public opinion, also thanks to scientific research and data, that there is no time to waste and we want to bring that urgency into concrete plans aiming to move towards a fair share of resources and responsibilities, where the big emitters take political accountability and meet their climate finance commitments. “We can see signs that things are now reaching a breaking point, due to the rapid pace of change and degradation” (LS 61).

Intergenerational justice: “Young people demand change” (LS, 13). Their future is in grave danger and our generation is not doing enough to leave them a healthy planet. Being so short-sighted is an unacceptable injustice. “Consequently, intergenerational solidarity is not optional, but rather a basic question of justice, since the world we have received also belongs to those who will follow us” (LS 159).

Human dignity and rights, in particular of the most vulnerable, must always be at the center of the climate agenda. In implementing the Paris Agreement, human rights must be effectively protected, respected and upheld both in national policies and on the ground. Governments should show their efforts in this sense in their Nationally Determined Contributions and in their funding choices for adaptation and resilience.

And therefore we demand policies that include and acknowledge the following calls and elements:

1.5°C to stay alive: We have a moral duty to keep global warming to “well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels”, as agreed by governments in the Paris Agreement. Pope Francis: As we know, everyone is affected by the climate crisis. Yet the effects of climate change are not evenly distributed. It is the poor who suffer most from the ravages of global warming [...] Many of those who can least afford it are already being forced to leave their homes and migrate to other places that may or may not prove welcoming. Many millions of migrants will follow. A fair and just ecological transition, as required by the Paris Agreement, is a matter of life or death for vulnerable countries and people living in coastal areas.

We need a deep and durable shift towards sustainable lifestyles and bold political choices that could back those efforts to address overconsumption and drastically cut ecological footprints at individual and community levels. “All these actions presuppose a transformation on a deeper level, namely a change of hearts and minds”.

Special traditions and knowledge of Indigenous communities must be listened to, effectively protected and preserved: they offer valuable solutions for the care and sustainable management of natural resources. “It grieves us to see the lands of indigenous peoples expropriated and their cultures trampled on by predatory schemes and by new forms of colonialism, fueled by the culture of waste and consumerism“. False solutions which use natural resources as production commodities (such as large hydro, agrofuel or cash crops) at the expense of indigenous communities’ rights cannot be defended.  

A financial paradigm shift is necessary. “Financial institutions have an important role to play, as part both of the problem and its solution”.It is nowadays necessary and urgent to establish a system of transparency, efficiency and evaluation in conformity with – among others – the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and the Paris Agreement, and that financial markets be regulated according to these global frameworks. We call for a finance which serves society, builds communities and promotes integrity, equality and justice.  

The energy sector must be transformed: We reiterate our urgent call to “put an end the fossil fuel era” through a rapid transition to an economy powered by renewable energy, as we know from scientists that most fossil fuel reserves need to remain underground. That requires phasing out fossil fuel subsidies and shifting investments away from corporations that continue to explore for new fossil fuel reserves in a way that is incompatible with the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting temperature rise. In parallel, ambitious efforts are needed to ensure a just transition in which workers from affected industries are supported and investments are directed towards supporting renewable energy systems. Building safe, affordable, reliable, and efficient energy systems based on renewable sources, which meet communities’ development needs, can help tackle poverty, inequality and environmental degradation.

We must rethink the agriculture sector. Agriculture should pursue its fundamental function of providing healthy and nutritious food and making it available and accessible to all, thus contributing to eliminating hunger worldwide. Agriculture should not be solely used for its potential to capture carbon, nor to favour the interests of large businesses at the expenses of poor farmers and the health of people. Agroecology should be especially promoted as a particularly adaptive and resilient practice, especially for smallholder farmers, and as a model ensuring human well-being, stronger communities, and care for the environment.

The above mentioned points are also at the heart of the several actions the wide Catholic community is carrying out to turn the vision of Laudato Si’ and the Paris Agreement into practice. We renew our commitment to take bold steps to live the change we call for within our institutions. We firmly believe that this ecological conversion is also a spiritual challenge. We encourage all the initiatives within and beyond the Catholic Church that already witness that living more sustainably is possible, achievable and fairer. Ultimately, this is key to the survival of human kind.

BISHOP SIGNATORIES TO THIS DECLARATION:

Angelo Cardinal Bagnasco               
President, CCEE, Archbishop of Genoa           

Oswald Cardinal Gracias
President, FABC, Archbishop of Mumbai

Rubén Cardinal Salazar Gómez
President, CELAM, Archbishop of Bogota

Archbishop Peter Loy Chong
President, FCBCO, Archbishop of Suva

Archbishop Jean-Claude Hollerich
President, COMECE, Archbishop of Luxembourg

Archbishop Gabriel Mbilingi
President, SECAM, Archbishop of Lubango

Written in collaboration with the Catholic networks Caritas Internationalis, CIDSE and the Global Catholic Climate Movement

Prayer: For a better world

https://cafod.org.uk/Pray/Prayer-resources/Prayer-for-a-better-world

Prayer: For a better world

For the people whose lives have touched ours,
for the love they show,
the burdens they lift,
the hopes we share.

Compassionate God, we ask you:
to fill us with your love,
to place in our hearts a spirit of courage,
to move us to reach out to others in need.

And lead us to play our part,
so that now and in generations to come
all your children may share
in our hope for a better world.

We ask this through Christ our Lord,

Amen

Catherine Gorman, written for the Your Catholic Legacy consortium 

Taken from https://cafod.org.uk/Pray/Prayer-resources/Prayer-for-a-better-world

Queen of all creation pray for us

https://cafod.org.uk/Pray/Prayer-resources

CLIMATE PRAYER

CLIMATE PRAYER

"...we need to ensure key decision makers know significant change needs to happen now to stop species going extinct. Climate change is not a future threat anymore.” - James Watson, scientist with the Wildlife Conservation Society
- - - - - - -
Heavenly Father, we ask your forgiveness during this time of examination of conscience. We ask you to open our hearts to the ways our own actions in the world make us culpable to the ongoing threats from climate change. Help us to shift our hearts and focus our hands to protect all species from extinction.  We ask this through the intercession of our Lord, Jesus Christ, Amen.

Feminization of water poverty in Africa

This is taken from https://water.oikoumene.org/en/whatwedo/seven-weeks-for-water/2017/feminization-of-water-poverty-in-africa

Feminization of water poverty in Africa

Feminization of water poverty in Africa

Dr Agnes Abuom at the Opening service of “Seven Weeks for Water” in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. ©Ivars Kupcis/WCC
The second of the seven reflections of the Lenten Campaign: Seven Weeks for Water 2017 of the Word Council of Churches’ (WCC) Ecumenical Water Network (EWN) is by Dr Agnes Abuom, moderator of the WCC’s Central Committee.

Dr Abuom is the first woman and first African to hold this important position. She is also the Executive Director of TAABCO Research and Development Consultants, based in Nairobi, Kenya. In her reflection, being an African woman on the eve of International Women’s Day, she explores the linkages between poverty, water scarcity and its impact on women.  It is also contextual in that today Kenya is reeling under a serious drought which is deteriorating the situation for women as they are mostly responsible for fetching water for their families.

WEEK 2

Feminization of water poverty in Africa: An African woman’s reflection

By Dr Agnes Abuom

As we celebrate International Women’s Day, the world is in crisis. Serious droughts and famines are currently ravaging millions in Africa, particularly in the Horn of Africa. For women and children especially, every minute of this crisis is real and biting. The lack of water is squeezing the health and lives out of men, women and children. It is survival for the fittest! They cannot grow food; their livestock - the mainstay of their livelihoods - are dying in the thousands; they cannot maintain good health. Children cannot stay in school and people cannot continue working. These are the root cause of the crisis and water poverty.

Water and poverty are intricately linked. A lack of clean and safe water and poverty are reciprocally preventing access to consistent sources of clean, water which is crucial to poverty reduction. While Africa comprises 11 per cent of the world’s population, it has approximately 9 per cent of the world’s fresh water resources (World Bank, n.d.a.). Currently, Sub-Saharan Africa faces several water-related challenges that are threatening the livelihoods of its people, especially women and children. This situation is currently deteriorating with climate change.[1] There is big gap in water infrastructure, limited water development and management capacity to meet the demands of a rapidly growing population. This is compounded by Africa having the fastest urbanization rate in the world.[2] The burden of water poverty borne by women, especially in Africa, is immense. Diana M. Pearce, an American sociologist, in 1978, coined the phrase “feminization of poverty”. This concept has become a buzzword for explaining the plight of women all over the world. Feminization of water poverty therefore, may be defined as a phenomenon wherein women, as compared to men, experience water poverty at disproportionately high rates.

In this reflection, I seek to paint the picture of feminization of water poverty in Africa. Across the continent hundreds of millions of rural and the urban-poor women are experiencing adverse effects of the water crisis. Water poverty is manifested in various forms, including lack of sufficient available water; poor accessibility to clean, safe water and proper sanitation; time loss in fetching water; the risk of disease water-related infectious diseases and the resultant deaths.

As a young girl, I was brought up in a rural area in Western Kenya where we had no tapped water. Every day, we used to fetch water using pails on our heads from the nearby river for our domestic use. In the afternoons we used to drive our fathers’ cattle to the same river to drink water. During my high school and college life, I went to the city where water was piped, in abundance and accessible. We could bath as many times as we wanted, wash our clothes and swim. During my schooling in Sweden, water was everywhere - in pipes (hot and cold), in pools, in rivers in lakes and in the sea.

I have gone through experiences with women in various parts of Africa for the last forty years as a church worker, and development consultant. We have rubbed shoulders with rural women, who form the majority of the population in Africa, in every corner of Kenya, in East Africa, in Ethiopia, in South Sudan, in the Congo and in southern Africa. In these areas, water scarcity and accessibility, along with water poverty, is real and biting.

According to UNDP (2016), “Access to water, sanitation and hygiene is a human right, yet billions are still faced with daily challenges accessing even the most basic of services. Approximately, 1.8 billion people globally use a source of drinking water that is fecally contaminated. Around 2.4 billion people lack access to basic sanitation services, such as toilets or latrines. Water scarcity affects more than 40 per cent of the global population and is projected to rise[3].” In addition, water scarcity, poor water quality and inadequate sanitation negatively impact food security, livelihood choices and educational opportunities for poor families across the world. Drought afflicts some of the world’s poorest countries, worsening hunger and malnutrition. By 2050, at least one in four people is likely to live in a country affected by chronic or recurring shortages of fresh water. The economic impact of not investing in water and sanitation costs 4.3 per cent of sub-Saharan African GDP.

Feminization of water poverty in Africa is manifested in the following ways; adverse effects of disaster like drought; water scarcity; inadequate accessibility to clean water and sanitation; high incidence and risk of water-related diseases; the burden of fetching water and time lost in fetching water. Let us briefly reflect on each of these effects:

1. Disaster currently prevailing in the Horn of Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa is adversely affected as a result of climate change as it becomes drier and drought prone. According to the International Federation of the Red Cross, over 20 million people in Kenya, South Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia are currently affected by drought. The majority of the victims are women and children. Now the government of Kenya has declared a drought, a national disaster (23 out of 47 counties are facing severe drought). Kenya's Drought Management Authority says that about 2.7 million people are in need, and livestock are threatened. During this drought, young girls and women in these countries can spend up to eight hours a day fetching around 20 litres of water. Currently many children are out of school.

2. Water scarcity resulting from the drought. Water scarcity involves water shortage, water stress or deficits, and water crisis.  Notably, many parts of the world are experiencing water scarcity. This problem is worsened with climate change. In Africa both physical and economical water scarcity is impeding both social and economic development. Moreover, more often than not, water scarcity causes conflicts. Local communities are experiencing local tensions and violence over access to water points on a daily basis. In these conflicts women and children are the highest number of victims.

3. Water scarcity as a result of commercialization and privatization of water resources. There is no doubt that in Africa the scarcity of water is linked to climate change and mismanagement of resources. But more essential is the equitable access and distribution of water. As matters stand, companies and industrial plants are accessing more water for industrial use than those who access it for household use. For poor urban people living on the margins, the cost of water is increasingly becoming prohibitive. Thus many households cannot afford the amount of water needed for daily household use. Commercialization and privatization of water as a vital resource for sustaining life is of major concern in many African countries. In a recent development in the Horn of Africa a major dam and water were diverted for commercial farming. It rendered many small pastoral communities without sufficient water, resulting in loss of livestock and human lives as witnessed in the current drought in the Northern Corridor of Kenya.

4. Lack of access to clean water and sanitation: Safe water means consistent access to and adequate supply of clean water suitable for drinking, bathing, cooking, and cleaning. According to the World Health Organization, this means safe drinking water from a source less than one kilometre (0.62 miles) away and at least 20 litres (5.28 gallons) per person each day.  For those who live in the developed world and other urbanized areas, access to clean water and sanitation are viewed as a basic right, not a luxury. However, millions of communities in Africa do not have this basic right and suffer from preventable struggles, diseases, and deaths because of it. Unsafe water, inadequate sanitation, and insufficient hygiene account for an estimated 9.1 per cent of the global burden of disease and 6.3 percent of all deaths, according to the World Health Organization. This burden is disproportionately borne by women and children in developing countries, with water-related factors causing more than 20 per cent of deaths for people under the age of 14. The lack of access to and availability of clean water and sanitation has had devastating effects on many aspects of daily life of women such as work burden, safety, education, and the equity of women.

5. Increase of water-related diseases: Nearly half of all people in developing countries have infections or diseases associated with inadequate water supply and sanitation (Bartram et al., 2005). In many countries in Africa, preventable water-borne diseases keep a large portion of the population in a cycle of illness, illiteracy, and poverty. At any time, half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from a water-related disease[4]. Lack of sanitation is the world’s biggest cause of infection. Hand-washing reduces the risk of disease by 50 per cent. (The Global Public-Private, globalhandwashing.org, Health Impact). The water and sanitation crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims through guns.[5] The range of water-related microbial infectious diseases (that is water-borne, water-washed, water-based and water-related vectors) are immense. The overwhelming majority of rural and urban poor African women, men and children die every year from such water-related diseases. Preventable, water-borne disease like diarrhoea, typhoid and malaria also keep children out of school. When girls begin puberty and start to menstruate, they are disproportionately affected by a lack of safe water and sanitation because they are unable to attend to their hygiene needs at school. They must miss class for long periods, skip roughly one quarter of school days, and many drop out altogether. When children are unable to attend school and get an education, the workforce of the entire country is affected, and nations looking to emerge from widespread poverty find this obstacle very difficult to overcome.

6. The burden of fetching water: Women bear the heaviest burden when there is no safe water and sanitation. In most places that lack these resources, women and children are responsible for retrieving water for their families, often spending several hours each day travelling and waiting at a water point. This often puts them at risk of assault and injury. The women and girls often stay home from work and school to care for family members that are sick with water-related diseases. They do most of the cooking and cleaning for the family. They miss school when there is no latrine to give them a private place to take care of their hygiene needs during menstruation. They are more vulnerable to infections when they have to wait until dark to use the bathroom, which often means defecation in a field or forest. It is demanding to carry the equivalent of a 5-year-old child for three hours each day. And some women carry even more, up to 70 pounds in a barrel carried on the back.

7. Amount of time lost in fetching water: Time lost in fetching water robs women and their communities of their entire futures. The United Nations estimates that Sub-Saharan Africa alone loses 40 billion hours a year spent fetching water.  The hours lost gathering water are often the difference between time to do a trade and earning a living. With much of one's day already consumed by meeting basic needs, there isn't time for much else. In Africa, women and girls walk on average over 3.5 miles each day to fetch water. Women often spend more than 15 hours a week gathering water... Just think of the things you would miss if you had to take three hours out each day to get water. This time is taken from education, child care, cooking, fetching wood, paid labour and other livelihood activities that are part of poor people’s survival strategies. With unclean water sources often miles from the villages, women and girls spend hours each day simply finding and transporting water. The typical container used for water collection in Africa, the jerry can, weighs over 40 pounds when completely full.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we need to reverse the situation: Mahatma Gandhi said "Poverty is the worst form of violence."  And Indira Gandhi told the seminal 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, poverty’, “is the worst form of pollution”. Women and girls make up more than half the world’s population - and they are on the frontlines - often more deeply impacted than men and boys by poverty, climate change, food insecurity, lack of healthcare, and global economic crises. Their contributions and leadership are central to finding a solution. The UN in its Sustainable Development  Goals recognizes the importance of reducing the number of people without sustainable access to clean water and sanitation. African countries and governments need to elevate the reduction of water poverty.

References

Al Jazeera (2017): Crisis in the Horn of Africa: Somalia's Famine

Carolina Johansson Wennerholm (2002):   The 'Feminisation of Poverty' The use of a concept

End Water Poverty

Global Issues in Water, Sanitation, and Health: Workshop Summary.

Lifewater (2014): Water and poverty. WASH

Poverty and Water Poverty in Africa. The Water Project retrieved from https://thewaterproject.org/why-water/poverty

The Water Project: Poverty and Water

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (2017): Horn of Africa: A Call for Action, February 2017

UN.(2016): CLEAN WATER AND SANITATION: WHY IT MATTERS. Sustainable Development Goals retrieved from http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment

UNESCO, (2016): The United Nations World Water Development Report 2016

[1] UNDP, 2016

[2] Rafei and Tabari, 2014.

[3] UNDP (2016): Cl E A N Water And Sanitation: Why It Matters

[4] UNICEF/WHO, Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation: Special Focus on Sanitation, UNICEF/WHO, 2008.

[5] United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Human Development Report 2006, Beyond Scarcity: Power, Poverty, and the Global Water Crisis, UNDP, 2006

Taken from https://water.oikoumene.org/en/whatwedo/seven-weeks-for-water/2017/feminization-of-water-poverty-in-africa

From the St. Francis’ Canticle of Creatures. It is significant that Pope Francis drew the title of his encyclical, “Laudato Si” or “Praised Be”, from the opening words of this prayer.

From the
St. Francis’ Canticle of Creatures. It is significant that Pope Francis drew the title of his encyclical, “Laudato Si” or “Praised Be”, from the opening words of this prayer. We hope to combine our prayers with yours as we take a deep breath and pray:

Most High, all-powerful, good Lord,
Yours are the praises, the glory, and the honor, and all blessing,
To You alone, Most High, do they belong,
and no human is worthy to mention Your name.
Praised be You, my Lord, with all Your creatures,
especially Sir Brother Sun,
Who is the day and through whom You give us light.
And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendor;
and bears a likeness of You, Most High One.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars,
in heaven You formed them clear and precious and beautiful.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Wind,
and through the air, cloudy and serene, and every kind of weather,
through whom You give sustenance to Your creatures.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Water,
who is very useful and humble and precious and chaste.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Fire,
through whom You light the night,
and he is beautiful and playful and robust and strong.
Praised be You, my Lord, through our Sister Mother Earth,
who sustains and governs us,
and who produces various fruit with colored flowers and herbs.

Praised be You, my Lord, through those who give pardon for Your love,
and bear infirmity and tribulation.
Blessed are those who endure in peace
for by You, Most High, shall they be crowned.

Praised be You, my Lord, through our Sister Bodily Death,
from whom no one living can escape.
Woe to those who die in mortal sin.
Blessed are those whom death will find in Your most holy will,
for the second death shall do them no harm.
and serve Him with great humility.
Praise and bless my Lord and give Him thanks
and serve Him with great humility.

Ecological Examen by: Joseph Carver, SJ

From http://www.sjweb.info/sjs/pjnew/PJShow.cfm?pubTextID=10153

Ignatian Spirituality and Ecology: entering into conversation

Joseph Carver SJ
The tradition of Ignatius provides a foundational dimension to the spirituality of the contemporary Church. In examining aspects of this spirituality, we can allow our 'kinship' with the Earth and all of creation to inform our encounter with the Incarnate Christ.  Ignatian spirituality demands a critical awareness of the environment in our daily lives, moving us from a sense of mere stewardship of the Earth to a deeper covenant of membership in the order of creation. This view is not merely instrumental but sacramental: the very relational quality of God as actualized in creation. This perspective recognizes that we are engaged in a relationship with the Incarnate God, and must therefore see ourselves as kin with all creation, both biologically and spiritually. This point of view demands an ecological conversion by which we address the current environmental crisis with a fresh recognition of our kinship with all creation.  This newfound communion enables us to overcome abstraction and know the bonds of Heaven to Earth, of Spirit to Matter.

Any contemporary theology that claims to address the ecological crisis will need to be a theology that understands the human person as part of the natural world. My assertion is that Christians have a particular role in the environmental movement because of our understanding of both the Incarnation and communion. A communal theology, which takes seriously the incarnational grounding of our human identity, transforms humanity's relationship to the natural world and inspires an enriched approach to the ecological movement. Ignatian Spirituality offers a unique point of entry into ecological spirituality and thus the restoration of creation. When the great themes of Christian theology, such as covenant and incarnation, are brought to our contemporary understanding of ecology with an attitude that is critical yet respects the beauty and depth of both disciplines, they raise our ecological vision from one of mere materialism to one of reconciliation, re-creation, and ultimately resurrection. What follows is a very brief consideration of the topic. I do not pretend to offer a full realization of what will come from this meeting of Ignatian Spirituality and an ecological imagination, but I hope to offer a two initial steps.

         The daily examen and Ignatian imaginative prayer are two clear ways to cultivate an ecological sensitivity in one's interior life. We are well aware that God continually draws each one of us to Himself in and through Christ. We experience God's action in our feelings, moods, actions and desires. We believe that God reveals Himself in our feelings as much as He does in our clear and distinct ideas. Allowing God to draw us more intimately, we must first let Him draw us at the core of our being, which means becoming more aware of our feelings. Here we recognize God's ceaseless invitation to come closer, to be more like God, to be one with God. Additionally, we become conscious of our resistance to God, which arises from sin in ourselves and in the world about us. Using the technique of the examen with an ecological lens allows us to reflect prayerfully on the events of the day.  We are able to witness our relationship with creation, and to detect God's presence and discern God's direction for us. The goal of the examen is a discerning heart. The purpose of the Ecological Examen is discerning how God is inviting us individually to see how we are responding with greater sensitivity.

         The five movements in the Ecological Examen parallel the traditional examen. We begin with thanksgiving and gratitude for the covenant God offers in the gift of God's self in all creation. Second, we specifically request to have our eyes opened by the Spirit as to how we might care for creation. Third, we review the challenges and joy experienced in this care. Asking God: "How was I drawn into God today through creation?" How were we being invited to respond to God's action in creation? Is there some part of our relationship with creation that is in need of change? Fourth, asking for a true and clear awareness of our sinfulness, whether it be a sense of superiority or a failure to respond to the needs of creation. Finally, hope. We ask for hope in the future, asking for greater sensitivity to trust in God's living presence in all creation.

Ecological Examen by: Joseph Carver, SJ

All creation reflects the beauty and blessing of God's image. Where

was I most aware of this today?

Can I identify and pin-point how I made a conscious effort to care

for God's creation during this day?

What challenges or joys do I experience as I recall my care for

creation?

How can I repair breaks in my relationship with creation, in my

unspoken sense of superiority?

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. (Jn 17:22-23)   

The examen, like the Spiritual Exercises, progresses to the point of exhorting us to a total commitment to the life of Christ. Inspired by the Spirit, looking at the events in our lives and on the earth from an ecological perspectives moves us to deepen our commitments, returning to daily life with enthusiasm, inspired to transform, heal and recover the natural environment. In my experience the practice of the Ecological Examen has led to profound experiences of gratitude, for the gifts of creation most especially. This examen teaches us our ultimate purpose "to praise, reverence and serve God" in such a way that a Christian environmental response is part and parcel of everything we do. The goal is therefore to make this response part of our service to each other, to our communities, and to all creation. Like the traditional examen, the Ecological Examen leads us to three steps: awareness, appreciation and commitment. Awareness involves taking off our societal blinders that keep us focused on our own pursuits. From awareness comes appreciation; we cannot appreciate what we are unaware of, or not in relationship with. Appreciation leads to respect and love; all creation has value because God made it thus. In this way we learn to appreciate those things we would only previously tolerate, and treat as objects; now we begin to see and learn of their critical importance to the rest of the community of creation. Suddenly we find we are imitating the dung beetle in our kitchen composting, and building turbines that mimic the flippers of humpback whales. Creation becomes an indispensible teacher rather than an intolerable scavenger. Finally, appreciation leads us to committed action. We move beyond reuse and recycling, beyond stewardship, to restoration and renewal.

Similar graces come from using our imagination in prayer to contemplate scenes from the gospel, and not simply from a human point of view. A short time ago, as I sat with a retreatant, it was clear to me that he was spinning. He was on day 6 of the Third Week of the Exercises, preoccupied not with Christ but with the intensity of His suffering, speaking again and again of the gruesomeness of the contemplations. As we came to the end of our time, I invited him to place Christ in the tomb by the end the day. He agreed. Though I rarely give this directive, holding on to my piece of gneiss, I felt compelled by the Spirit. I invited him to consider imagining himself as the tomb itself in the contemplation. Again, he agreed. When we met late the next day, he tearfully said 4 words: "Christ rose within me." Deeply consoled and joyful, he went on to recount the powerful contemplation he had experienced at the tomb.

A resurrection-centered approach to the environment begins in God moving us toward the realization of this love in all created things. This paradox of love resides at the very centre of the gospel and core of the Exercises. The centre of Ignatius' spiritual experiences is the awareness of Christ's divine love present and at work in the world. Therefore, finding God at work in the creation for Ignatius does not begin with creation and ascend from there by some form of purification of the senses, but begins in God and moves into and through creation. Developments since the era of high scholasticism have not fundamentally changed this basic mystery of God's relationship to creation. Teilhard de Chardin, for example, thought it his life's work to reintegrate spirituality with the Earth.  He accomplished much towards that end; however his thinking ends by subsuming all material creation within human transformation. As he writes: "In a convergent universe, every element finds its fulfillment, not directly in its own perfection, but in its incorporation into the unity of a superior pole of consciousness in which it can enter into communion with all others. Its worth culminates in a transmutation into the other, in a self-giving excentration."[1] Or again, "the end of the world; the overthrow of equilibrium, detaching the mind, fulfilled at last, from its material matrix, so that it will henceforth rest with all its weight in God's Omega."[2] These and other passages indicate that Teilhard saw the universe as being subsumed into human fulfillment in Christ.  Thus we are invited to enter into the scene as if we were part of the natural world - a seed planted, the hewn rock tomb of Christ, the oil anointing Christ's feet. With literally hundreds of opportunities in the gospels and seemingly endless examples when we include the Hebrew scriptures and the Psalms, these contemplations cannot help but provoke feelings of gratitude and compel us towards action on behalf of creation. Contemplating such scenes evokes courage and a new kind of reverential humility for the gift of creation - the same virtues Jesus cultivated in following the will of God. Combining this new language of images with the wonder and grace of creation has the power to heal.

Two years ago, when directing an eight day retreat, I invited a woman to prayer with Mark 4:26-29, the parable of the growing seed. She was grieving deeply over her inability to conceive and for many years suffered from a profound sense of shame and guilt. Entering into this contemplation as the soil, she experienced a profound sense of healing. She returned the following day filled with joy to recount how she "had given birth to God's Word...a living Word!" She spoke of the profound sense of being both a disciple and mother. (I have often wondered if any physical healing came from this spiritual grace. Whether or not it did, her "healing" gave her a mission, and in living this mission she remains a healing presence in the world.)

God certainly enlightened Ignatius as to the Trinity in creation. "One day while reciting the hours of our Lady on the steps of some monastery...he saw the Holy Trinity under the figure of three [organ] keys,"[3] The fullness of the chord and the harmony drew forth tears. (This is the first time Ignatius speaks of tears.) He could not stop talking of the Trinity and spoke of his visions of rays, the manner in which God created the earth, and the luminosity of creation. It is hard to ignore the experience of the Cardoner; there is little doubt that Ignatius related this experience and all these things as God's way of guiding souls more deeply into the principles of discernment.[4] Whether it was from the rooftop of the Curia in Rome or at the starry heavens of Loyola, he certainly beheld the stars with new eyes as well as "the other things on the face of the earth." [SpEx 23]. It is not surprising that right up to the end of his life Ignatius references these unifying visions in the Exercises, letters, the Constitutions, and in all sorts of decisions. I cannot help but believe that Ignatius would delight in the beautiful ironic truth that he himself is composed of stardust. The stars that taught him so much about reverence, awe, and wonder are composed of the very same elements of which he himself is composed -- God delighting in the very same elements in each.

When the 35th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus sought to articulate the mission of the Society today, it spoke of our need to create right relationships, especially in three areas: first, reconciliation with God, second, reconciliation with one another, and third, reconciliation with creation. (I am reminded of Pope Paul III's charge to Ignatius to include the hearing of confessions when he sought approval of the founding documents of the Society.) While the first two have a long history in the Church, the last has often been forgotten, emerging only today in a time of grave ecological challenge and profound new insight into the richness of our incarnational heritage. The Congregation, realizing this new reality, challenges Jesuits and all those inspired by the spirituality of Ignatius to "move beyond doubts and indifference to take responsibility for our home, the Earth."[5] This investigation is my attempt to take the call of the Congregation seriously; but more, to show how this call to a Eucharistic ecology emerges from-and has often been overlooked within-the long sacramental tradition of the Church and the incarnational spirituality of Ignatius, especially as seen in the Spiritual Exercises.

In his letter promulgating the Decrees of General Congregation 35, the Superior General of the Society of Jesus, Adolfo Nicolás wrote: "The task now at hand lies with the whole Society. It is our responsibility to 'receive' the decrees and to give them life in our ministries, communities and personal lives. Our experience has taught us that the success or failure of a General Congregation does not lie in documents but in the quality of lives which are inspired by them. Because of this, I earnestly exhort all Jesuits to read, study, meditate on and appropriate these decrees. Likewise, I encourage you to enrich them with the depth of your own faith and insight."[6] In this brief article, I have attempted to respond to the call of Father General and engage in the mission offered by the Congregation.[7] Today, as the world can no longer sustain the dichotomies of spirit versus matter, or ecology versus spirituality, it is up to us-perhaps especially those of us graced by the gift of Ignatian spirituality-to reconcile these opposites for the life of the world, thus responding to the encouragement expressed in the letter of promulgation for the General Congregation. I have tried in this work to take the various inspirations found in our tradition, and "give them life" through my own "faith and insight".

[1] See Teilhard de Chardin, The Future of Man, trans. N. Denny (N.Y.: Harper & Row, 1959), 76.

[2] See Teilhard de Chardin, Phenomenon of Man, 287f.

[3] Spiritual Journal, Obras Completas de San Ignacio (Madrid, 1952), 748.

[4] Obras Completas, 669.

[5] Documents of the 35th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus, Decree 3: Challenges to our Mission Today "Reconcilation with Creation" accessed March 1, 2009.

[6] "Letter of Promulgation" accessed March 1, 2009 http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/GC35/prmlgtn

[7] This mission is succinctly presented in the opening quotation and initial paragraphs of Part II (page 24).