The Impact of the Visitation Sisters on DSW

Editor's Note: The following entry is from Fr. Mike McCue, OSFS, director of De Sales Service Works in Camden, NJ. Fr. Mike traces the impact that the sisters of the Visitation, particularly the community in Minneapolis, have had on DSW. This year the Visitation order celebrates its 400th anniversary of the first group of Visitation sisters begininng in Annecy, France, after being formed by Sts. Francis de Sales and Jane de Chantal. Visitation sisters throughout the world keep the Salesian spirit alive in the world today. For more information about the Visitation order, visit http://www.visitationsisters.org/.

Later this month, three recent college graduates will begin a year of service in Camden volunteers with De Sales Service Works. The entry below highlights a number of aspects of this year. In addition to year long volunteers, DSW also hosts individuals and groups for day, weekened, or week long service retreats. For more information on DSW, please visit: http://www.oblates.org/dsw/

Models for DSW
This is the second of three reflections that look at communities that serve as models for De Sales Service Works in Camden. The three are St. Francis Inn in Philadelphia, what I call “the Oblate work ethic,” and the Visitation Monastery of North Minneapolis.

Visitation Sisters
For 20 years a group of Visitation Sisters have lived a monastic life in an unusual setting. These nuns make their community in a very poor section of North Minneapolis, MN. They follow a regular cycle of prayer, Mass, chanted psalms, meditation, community and labor that makes up the schedule of any contemplative nun or monk. But their setting is not a walled enclosure in a remote, pristine location. Their monastery is two big, old houses in their struggling neighborhood.

One of the most vivid ways to describe this Visitation community is to tell the story they tell about getting settled in the neighborhood. Late one afternoon when they had been in the area only a few months, a young man was shot in the street outside their house. The sisters all ran out of the house to help the man. One cradled his head in her lap; another tried to stop the bleeding. They all knelt in the street and prayed and sang for the man while they waited for the police and rescue to arrive. They made an impression in the community by reaching out in this un-scripted way: they reached out naturally; they naturally prayed. People gathered around told the sisters that the man was a drug dealer, a real “bad guy.” He did not deserve their care or the prayers. The sisters said they did not care. He still deserved not to die alone, and they held him and prayed.

That action, somewhat imprudent, definitely natural and generous, established their identity as unafraid and prayerful. Moreover, they were clearly members of the neighborhood who were there to stay.

Natural Prayer
This story illustrates three things that this Visitation community gives to De Sales Service Works. First, they bring prayer into everything in very natural, honest ways. There are dramatic moments like the shooting of the drug dealer. But most often they connect with God in simple Salesian hospitality and kindness. The sisters have been part of the community for so long that many people have been connected and have become friends. So people knock on their door to check-in or just to say hello. These visits provide occasions to catch up and connect, and to offer thanks to God or to ask for help and blessing. Visits, departure, welcome, start of workday, learning news, special occasions: all of these are moments for simple prayers and blessings.

Hospitality
Secondly, day by day, their service involves welcoming people into their home. They welcome kids for tutoring, for reading, and for computer lessons. The windsock that has become the monastery symbol developed as a signal to kids that it was time to stop by for lessons. Neighbors and friends join the community for Mass in their living room a couple times per week. Following Mass everyone present is welcomed to breakfast and conversation. They welcome old friends back and want to know how things are going. They welcome new people as friends: no one is a stranger.

Liturgy and Life
Thirdly, the warmth and wholesome quality of these women comes across in the way they pray the Liturgy of the Hours, the official prayer of the Church. This prayer is made up of psalms, canticles, hymns, and readings. Singing these prayers is a core part of any monastic life, and the North Minneapolis monastery chants all the liturgies. However, what is different about their praying is that after each psalm, canticle, or reading they take time to “faith share.” The prayers are structured so there is silent reflection built in, but this community takes the time to speak aloud their reflections. The sharing connects the scripture with the daily life of their neighbors, with the ordinary tasks of each day, and with insights from contemplative life. This seems like a great way to insure that common prayer does not become a task to complete so we can get on to the next task. Instead, it connects with what goes on in the rest of our lives. This approach clearly encourages finding God in all people and events, in the ordinariness of daily living.

Because the structured prayer connects with life, it is not surprising that these women seamlessly bring prayers and blessings into ordinary days. They are a gift to their home neighborhood in Minnesota, but their example is a blessing for us in Camden. Learn more about this wholesome and amazing community at their web site:
http://www.visitationmonasteryminneapolis.org/

Vacation and Justice

We are well into summer now and many of us have had relaxing vacations already or are excited for an upcoming vacation. We all need a break from the hard work of our lives and vacations offer the opportunity for us to relax and see the world with new, less-stressed eyes.

However, as Christians committed to promoting peace and justice in the world, there is no such thing as a vacation from this committment. In fact, our choice of how to spend our vacations has an impact on other people and the rest of creation as well. In the Vatican's "Message for 2010 World Tourism Day" (available here: http://www.zenit.org/article-29745?l=english), the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers reminds us of the importance of how we spend our leisure time. I offer the following exceprt for our consideration:

Under the theme of "Tourism and Biodiversity" proposed by the World Tourism Organization, World Tourism Day hopes to offer its contribution to 2010's "International Year for Biological Diversity," declared by the General Assembly of the United Nations.This proclamation was born of the deep concern for "the social, economic, environmental and cultural implications of the loss of biodiversity, including negative impacts on the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, and stressing the necessity to adopt concrete measures in order to reverse it."

Biodiversity, or biological diversity, refers to the great wealth of beings that live on Earth, as well as the delicate equilibrium of interdependence and interaction that exists between them and the physical environment that hosts and conditions them. This biodiversity is translated into different ecosystems, of which examples can be found in forests, wetlands, savannah, jungles, deserts, coral reefs, mountains, seas and polar zones.

There are three imminent and grave dangers to them that require an urgent solution: climate change, desertification and the loss of biodiversity. The latter has been developing in recent years at an unprecedented rate. Recent studies indicate that on a worldwide level 22% of mammals, 31% of amphibians, 13.6% of bird life and 27% of reefs are threatened or in danger of extinction.

There are numerous areas of human activity that largely contribute to these changes, and one of them is, without a doubt, tourism, which is among those activities that have experienced great and rapid growth. In this regard, we can look to the statistics that the World Tourism Organization offers us. With international tourist travel numbering 534 million in 1995 and 682 million in 2000, estimates from the organization's "Tourism 2020 Vision" report are 1.006 billion for the year 2010 and reaching 1.561 billion in 2020, at an average annual growth rate of 4.1%. And to these statistics of international tourism one would have to add the even more important internal tourism numbers.

All of this points to strong growth in this economic sector, which brings with it some major effects on the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, and the consequent danger of their transformation into serious environmental impacts - especially in regard to the exorbitant consumption of limited resources (such as potable water and land) and the enormous generation of pollution and residues, exceeding the quantities that might be withstood by a determined area.

The situation is seen to be aggravated by the fact that tourist demand directs itself more and more towards natural destinations, attracted by their beauty, which leads to a major impact on the populations visited, on their economies, on their cultural heritage and on the environment. This fact can actually either be a harmful element or, on the contrary, contribute significantly and in a positive way to the conservation of the heritage. In this way tourism lives a paradox. If on the one hand it emerges and grows thanks to the attraction of some natural and cultural sites, on the other hand the very same tourism can become detrimental and even destructive, and as such the tourism sites end up being rejected as destinations for not possessing their original attraction.

For all of this, we must assert that tourism cannot relieve itself of its responsibility to defend biodiversity. On the contrary rather, it must assume an active role in it. This economic sector's development inevitably needs to be accompanied by the principles of sustainability and respect for biological diversity.

Francis de Sales was convinced that "We pray best before beauty," and all of us are naturally attracted to what is beautiful. However, we must always remember that all beauty points us to the beauty that is the love of God, and we demonstrate our love for God by respecting the beauty of all creation. I pray that everyone has a beautiful, relaxing vacation this summer that reverences the Creator behind the created world and renews us for our work to promote justice and peace in the world.

Haiti, Six Months after the Earthquake

Over six months have passed since the tragic earthquake struck Haiti and changed millions of lives. There was a tremendous outpouring of support from people throughout the world for the people of Haiti, and many friends of the Oblates were generous in their assistance of the Oblates and our ministries in Haiti. However, as time has passed the situation in Haiti has receded to the background in news coverage and in many of our minds. While we may not be as aware these days of the pressing needs of many of Haiti's people, that need still exists.

Today I am linking to a letter from the president of Catholic Relief Services about the efforts of CRS in Haiti in the six months since the earthquake. Much has been done, but the situation is still dire for many people.

http://crs-blog.org/making-progress-in-haiti/

For information on the important work being done by Oblate Fr. Tom Hagan and his co-workers, as well as information on giving and volunteering in Haiti, please visit http://www.handstogether.org/.

God Interrupts Our Lives

Editor's Note: The following reflection is from Fr. Mike McCue, OSFS, director of De Sales Service Works in Camden, NJ.

Water of Life

Our side porch is the site of a sandwich ministry where volunteers share anywhere from 60 to 140 sandwiches each weekday. On Tuesdays and Thursdays we also give out food bags. Anyone who has been here for a service retreat has made lunches and even participated in the service of distributing sandwiches. Sandwich ministry has evolved and still is developing as more people come for food and we try to offer effective help.

When we began this service, we gave soda and bottled water along with the sandwiches. Last May, two volunteers, Tim Gallagher and Mike Montavon, came up with the idea of self-service water. We now have two water coolers on our porch to provide water for homeless women and men in our downtown neighborhood. Sandwich ministry goes from 10:00 to 12:00, Monday through Friday, but our modest, orange Home Depot water coolers provide water any time of the day or night for people living on the streets around us. This source of water has been very popular, particularly in the hot days of spring and summer.

Encounter

In some ways this service is simple: people in need get water for drink and for washing up. But in other ways, there is a lot more going on.

One thing is that this water has created a place for encounter between two worlds. Perhaps talking about two worlds is too clumsy a way to talk about people; everyone who serves and everyone who is served comes with an individual story. But in a general way, we can talk about one world of “middle class people” with security and resources, andthe other of the “needy” without those basics.

Our needy fall into two general demographics. First, there are poor people trying to make ends meet. Many are new Americans struggling to get a foothold in this “land of opportunity.” There are people with limited income, homeless vets, people with mental illnesses.

The other main group is people on the streets because of drug use. You can read on their faces the length of time they have been living exposed to the all the harshness of outside living. Sometimes people will approach the door, and we are not sure whether they are going to turn out to be volunteers or homeless people. Others appear gaunt and hardened by months or years on the street, the spark of life confused and dimmed by addiction.

God Interrupts Our Lives

I first wrote this reflection when I was preparing to preach on the gospel scene (Luke 7:39-8:3) where Jesus is a guest in the house of a Pharisee, a “sinful woman” comes to the Lord, anoints his feet, bathes them with her tears, and dries them with her hair. Clearly the woman has experienced some sort of interruption by grace. So she comes to the Lord ready for change, extravagantly expressing her love and her desire for a new direction.

The host does not like that Jesus associates with a sinner in this way. We can easily imagine that he thinks he has his life together, that he is happy and complete. Perhaps he is aware of some inconsistencies and contradictions in his beliefs and behaviors, but feels like it is under control. Jesus’ behavior interrupts the assumptions and direction of the man’s life. He gives the man a challenge to look honestly at sin, forgiveness and grace. One subversive thing about the gospel is that it never lets us off the hook. Every challenge is addressed to us. God’s grace interrupts every life.

We hope that our water, the many of the encounters it fosters, and the kindness and respect extended may serve as moments of God breaking into the lives of people in this harsh city. Often, people will express gratitude for the water. In response, sometimes I’ll say, “We wish we could do more; I feel bad that you have to be out here.” What I am looking for is a stronger interruption to break through the resistance that comes with addiction or hopelessness. Perhaps as we spend more time here, we will learn how to do this. For now the simple signs of water and conversation are our tools. Small interruptions can have a cumulative effect.

Billy

This week a man, Billy, stopped by our house. He had been a regular at the door for water, food, and usually with a story about how he needed “just five dollars” to get to his sister’s house in suburban Philadelphia. He also repeatedly asked to use a phone, because he had met someone who was going to take him to a rehab program somewhere. This went on for months, and we could see the toll his drug use and living on the streets were taking on him. He even showed up some days with bruises on his face and cuts on his bald head. In all of our encounters he was polite and easy to engage, even though we knew he was stretching the truth, trying to get by.

He stopped by to see us because he was doing better. Three months ago he had been picked up by the police and had been in jail. He described this as saving his life. He got away from the danger on the street, he was able to detox from drugs and alcohol. And he told us he feels like he is headed in a new direction. God interrupted, and Billy has responded.

It meant so much that Billy went out of his way to tell us that he appreciated the support we gave via the hospitality extended by the volunteers and the Oblates. It means so much to have evidence that we too are cooperating with God’s grace in these ordinary encounters at our door.

Heart-less in Camden?

Editor's Note: In today's entry, Fr. Mike McCue, OSFS, director of De Sales Service Works in Camden, NJ, reflects on his experience of living in close contact with homeless people. The fact that some people do not have basic necessities such as housing is a challenge to all Christians, and Mike wrestles with some of the questions this issue raises and different options for how we can respond in love.

Recently, some 300 people with connections to the Oblates in the D.C. area gathered at Bishop Ireton High School for “Live Jesus Day” a morning of reflection, prayer and community in the Salesian tradition. As one of the presenters, I used the occasion to share experiences and insights from life in Camden.

I talked about the experience of having Ken and Barbie live on the front porch of the Oblate residence for the fall and much of the winter of this year. I frequently talk about this particularly poignant experience since they are such nice people, and we have gotten to know them pretty well. They have been our most sociable homeless neighbors since we arrived in August 2008.

When cold weather came, they set up camp on the front porch. Our front door with its floor-to-ceiling stained glass panel became a thin wall separating our two worlds. Because of the glass panel, we could never forget they were out there in the cold and insecurity of homelessness, while we lived and worked warm and secure in our middleclass world inside.

If I have any insight to share from this, it is that it is important to be unsettled as Christians as long as anyone, anywhere, lives without the necessities of life. Beyond that is the insight that there are no quick and easy solutions to poverty, homelessness, mental illness, and addiction that plague our neighbors—near or distant.

I think I may have come across in my “Live Jesus” presentation as heart-less because I lived for months face to face with these neighbors exposed in the cold.

What could we do? We talked about inviting Ken and Barbie in out of the cold: we have three guest rooms. But then would we invite the next people who pick our porch as a home? How about the others in our parking lot or across Market Street in that lot? We have three guest rooms, but I also have a double bed---couldn’t I share? People could sleep on our couches. Our floors are carpeted---even the tiled kitchen floor would be better than sleeping outside. Even our basement would be better.

It sounds like we need a homeless shelter set up to help people in this situation. But even with a shelter, there would be a limit, finite amount of beds, rules for order. Speaking for our area, Camden has far too few shelters for the numbers of homeless in our region. And our entire nation has insanely inadequate mental health and addiction services.

We did not invite our neighbors to live in our house. But we did offer food, kindness, patience, respect, and encouragement to connect with city services. We continued to work with other area Churches and groups to develop some kind of shelter before next fall. But still nothing about the situation can let us rest satisfied. The fact that we live on top of the problem in Camden as literal neighbors to these “least brothers and sisters” keeps the unfinished nature of the situation before us. But really, wherever you or I live and work, our needy neighbors are here, even if they are out of sight or at a distance.

I always replay homilies and talks in my mind after I give them. Replaying this one after “Live Jesus 2010,” there is much I would do differently. Two specific things I would add are these questions for the assembly: “What would you do if two homeless people lived outside your door?” Second, because there is need, whether we see it daily or not, I would ask, “What do you do?”

The answer to “What do you do?” would likely include donations and great support for efforts in inner cities and in poor nations, prayer and study, and direct service. It would likely include support for public policy in our nation to make social structures more fair and just, to offer support for those who find themselves deep in holes, improvement to the U.S. health system, improvement for our education system. There are not quick fixes; justice has a complexity.

Whatever efforts we participate in, the point remains, that as long as anyone anywhere is without what is needed for a decent living, Christians cannot rest satisfied. We will be in that state until the Lord himself comes to establish the fullness of God’s kingdom. Until that “kingdom come,” we do our best to respond to the challenge.

A New Way to Do Business: Profits for the Common Good

Editor's Note: In today's entry, Michael Castrilli, OSFS, continues his series on faith and social justice in the marketplace. Michael directs our attention to a particular business model highlighted by Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI that seeks to bring Catholic social teaching into business and recognizes that any economy should ultimately be judged by how it promotes human dignity. The entry offers sage advice from the Salesian heritage on how we can live these values in our own work lives today.

In Part I of this series on Faith and Justice in the Marketplace, we considered how we define a personal business ethic for our daily lives. The overall point was that if we live our daily lives with the Gospel at the core, we live as women and men of integrity and truly change the world around us. In today’s post, I want to look at how we can do this in a more global way, especially as it pertains to the marketplace.

How did Francis de Sales convert so many people in the dangerous Chablais region? He won hearts by talking to people one-on-one, listening to them, and dialoguing in love. He brought the image of God as a loving father and not a harsh critic to so many who desperately needed to hear it. This was an innovative approach to the 16th and 17th Century church. It has been 400 years and we are still talking about Francis de Sales; who out there reading this blog will we be talking about in 400 years? I think the potential number is unlimited. The key is to think in new ways about old ways of doing business. This happens in the marketplace: we get stuck thinking the only way to profit is through productivity, but what happens when we focus on the common good AND productivity?

Have you ever heard of the Economy of Communion? Pope Benedict XVI referred to the “economy of communion” (no. 46) in his encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth, 2009), while discussing business ethics today. I was not familiar with the “economy of communion” but after looking into this project, I found an extraordinary example of the way in which an individual and then a group of people have actively participated in creating dynamic and sustaining efforts to love neighbor and act for the common good in the marketplace. They are truly changing the world around them, one by one, business to business, community by community.

The project all began with Focolare, a lay ecclesial movement, founded in 1943, amidst World War II in Trent, Italy. In May 1991, Chiara Lubich, one of the founders of Focolare, witnessed extreme poverty near Sao Paolo, Brazil. Motivated by Pope John Paul II’s encyclical Centesimus Annus, (On the Hundredth Anniversary of Rerum Novarum, 1991) Lubich launched the Economy of Communion project. The project’s values and principles are extraordinary and one can see why the Pope highlighted this special community. The model is formed around for-profit businesses. First, as an immediate action, the businesses participate by providing jobs and direct assistance to those in need. Second, the businesses promote a “culture of giving” and invest profits freely back into the community. Finally, the participating organizations continue to educate others on the movement and enhance the business for sustained growth (see: www.edc-online.org). The bottom line is that these for-profit businesses are investing in their community by giving jobs and resources to their poorest neighbors. Think of the sustainable improvements for people’s lives by providing them jobs and investing in their future. According to statistics obtained through the organizations’ website, over 750 businesses are participating worldwide. Although the number may seem small, in Brazil and Latin America, as well as Europe, it is spreading fast and having a great financial and communal impact.

Francis changed the world one-by-one by not confining himself to contemporary paradigms, but by creating innovative means to help people – all people, find God. The Economy of Communion project has taken for-profit companies and transformed them to wealth and dignity for-people, especially those that need it most. So, this is our mission, all of us, to use the Gospel as our guide and our Salesian heart that leads with love, to make the world a better place and at the same time to change the way we do business! Business is always better when the common good is the principal profit.

Earth Day 2010

Editor's Note: In preparation for Earth Day 2010, which will be celebrated next Thursday, April 22, Fr. Mike McCue, OSFS, director of De Sales Servie Works in Camden, NJ, offers the following reflection. Francis de Sales had a particular appreciation for the beauty of the earth as a reflection of the love God has for all of creation. This appreciation lead to one of his most famous statements on how God reveals Godself in creation, "We pray best before beauty." Fr. Mike notes that human behavior can have a negative impact on the beauty of creation. For more information on De Sales Service Works and the work it is doing in Camden, or to learn about how you can volunteer, please visit www.oblates.org/dsw.

“God looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good.” Gen 1:31

“The brutal consumption of Creation begins where God is not, where matter is henceforth only material for us, where we ourselves are the ultimate demand, where the whole is merely our property and we consume it for ourselves alone…I think, therefore, that true and effective initiatives to prevent the waste and destruction of Creation can be implemented and developed, understood and lived, only where Creation is considered as beginning with God.”-Pope Benedict XVI, August 2008

This year marks the 40th Earth Day. I can remember the first one, as a 4th grader at Featherstone Elementary School, cleaning out the woods around our school. Cleaning up trash, and not littering in the first place, are important things. But on this 40th Earth Day, we can be very aware that much more is at stake in concern for the environment than bagging up litter and hauling away old tires. There is a consensus among scientific observers that human production of greenhouse gasses will cause significant and disruptive climate changes.

Catholic social teaching looks at the moral implications of the ways that societies structure themselves, paying particular attention to how structures affect people. One of the basic principles of Catholic social teaching deals with the area of how we use and care for the earth that God has given us as our home. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops summarize this principle of Catholic social teaching:

Care for God’s Creation:We show our respect for the Creator by our stewardship of creation. Care for the earth is not just an Earth Day slogan, it is a requirement of our faith. We are called to protect people and the planet, living our faith in relationship with all of God’s creation. This environmental challenge has fundamental moral and ethical dimensions that cannot be ignored.
The moral and ethical dimensions include the reality that people are affected by decisions about how to care for the earth. In addition, these decisions affect the poor, the unborn, and the aged: vulnerable people who are often without resources in a disproportionate way.

This is a commonsense principle that comes from a realization that we can damage the systems of the earth and compromise the health and safety of people. I assert that this is a common sense thing, but in our country, it is one that gets politicized and therefore over-simplified and caricatured. It is often seen as the concern of hippies in sandals and “love beads” and is therefore able to be dismissed as utopian and silly. Additionally, environmental concerns are often placed at odds with economic concerns, offering false dichotomies.

Living in Camden, NJ, I have come to a strong awareness of the effects of careless
use of the earth on communities. This type of thing can be experienced in any
industrial city, any place inhabited by many generations of people. Much of this city
can be described as “brownfield” damaged by decades of industrial use that did
not consider the long-term consequences of contamination, sloppy disposal, and use
of toxic substances. (A brownfield is defined under NJ state law
(N.J.S.A. 58:10B-23.d) as "any former or current commercial or industrial site that is
currently vacant or underutilized and on which there has been, or there is suspected to
have been, a discharge of a contaminant.")

There is a selfishness and laziness in a focus on profit that blocks consideration of
people and of consequences for future generations of the community. These
companies have left our city for other sites, leaving behind a dangerous legacy.
Again, as is the case with so many poor urban areas, parts of Camden are also known for poor air quality. Pollution in Camden comes from various industries in the south part of the city. These include a trash-to-steam power plant, and sewage treatment and scrap metal disposal facilities. These are not located in suburbs with affluent and politically connected residents, but in a poor, often politically disorganized town.

Below I quote from a group called the Catholic Coalition Climate Change
www.catholicsandclimatechange.org. This organization gathers Catholic moral teaching and resources on the topic. What follows is their very clear application of Catholic social teaching to this issue, under three topics: prudence, concern for the poor, and attention to the common good.
.
Prudence
“Prudence is intelligence applied to our actions … a thoughtful, deliberate, and reasoned basis for taking or avoiding action to achieve a moral good.” U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, U.S.C.C.B.

The Coalition accepts overwhelming scientific consensus about climate change. There is nearly unanimous agreement that human actions are creating a warming planet. As stewards of all creation, we must identify wise, careful actions that will reverse this climate change and avoid its potentially dangerous impact on all life—especially human life.

State and local Catholic leaders can play a central role in bringing together scientists, theologians, business and labor leaders, government officials, human service providers and other stakeholders to shape a wise and careful approach consistent with our principles. With such leadership, the Catholic community will answer God’s call to be faithful stewards.

“Prudence does not mean failing to accept responsibilities and postponing decisions; it means being committed to making joint decisions after pondering responsibly the road to be taken, decisions aimed at strengthening that covenant between human beings and the environment, which should mirror the creative love of God, from whom we come and towards whom we are journeying."

Poverty

“… any successful strategy must also reflect the genuine participation and concerns of those most affected and least able to bear the burdens … [this] is a moral and political necessity …” —U.S.C.C.B.

Natural disasters take the greatest toll on poor people. Inadequate transportation, lack of insurance, poor housing and little if any cash reserves put them on the edge of the precipice. To survive severe storms, prolonged droughts, extended heat waves and other climate-related events, these vulnerable sisters and brothers must receive assistance—both public and private.
The Coalition seeks to find constructive ways to approach climate change from the bottom up. We strive to bring the voice of the poor to the public debate about climate change and ensure that resources are available to the most vulnerable.

The Common Good

“Responses to global climate change should reflect our interdependence and common responsibility for the future of our planet. Individual nations must measure their own self-interest against the greater common good and contribute equitably to global solutions.” —U.S.C.C.B.

Climate change provides an opportunity to act with courage and creativity as individuals, as people of faith, as a nation. As a wealthy nation and as the top contributor to greenhouse gases, we in the United States must help to shape responses that serve not only our own interests but those the of the entire human family. The Coalition assists the Catholic community in linking personal stewardship and care for creation with our moral responsibilities to practice solidarity.

A Final Quote from Pope Benedict

“…make the responsibilities visible so that we may respond to this great challenge: to rediscover the Face of the Creator in creation, to rediscover in the Creator’s presence our responsibilities for his creation, which he has entrusted to us, to form the ethical capacity for a lifestyle that we must adopt if we wish to tackle the problems of this situation [of climate change] and if we really want to reach positive solutions.
Do not be fooled by those who see you as just another consumer in a market of undifferentiated possibilities, where choice itself becomes the good, novelty usurps beauty, and subjective experience displaces truth…
My dear friends, God’s creation is one and it is good. The concerns for non-violence, sustainable development, justice and peace, and care for our environment are of vital importance for humanity.” -Pope Benedict XVI at World Youth Day, June 2008