Pope's Action Platform Leader Holds Archdiocese-Wide Workshop At Epiphany

Pope’s Action Platform Leader Holds Archdiocese-Wide Workshop at Epiphany

Epiphany’s Environmental Concerns Committee presented a workshop on how parishes can live Laudato Si’ that not only featured the Vatican’s Global Director of the Laudato Si’ Action Platform, it drew over 140 attendees from all across the archdiocese. Despite the single-digit temperatures on January 20, organizations representing 15 parishes, Bellarmine University, the Archdiocese Office of Faith Formation, the Sisters of Charity Nazareth, and the Archdiocese of Louisville Creation Care Team participated.

John Mundell, the workshop leader who was appointed by Pope Francis to spearhead the goals of the Action Platform, titled his presentation, “Acting Locally to Preserve Our Common Home.” During the workshop, he explained and demonstrated practical actions individuals and organizations can adopt in caring for the Earth. While discussing the importance of individual actions, Mundell used an image of ripples in water to symbolize the impact of individual actions and then compared that to the mighty waves that can be generated by a connected community. It became clear that increasing an action’s impact begins by connecting with others.

Fostering those connections began during a series of tabletop discussions that began with the Earth Cube. This six-sided box turned out to be a motivational tool for supporting a healthy and sustainable planet. It is intended to create discussion on how to bring about a personal and collective attitude transformation. By rolling the box like a big die, one of six concepts comes up:

• Everything is a Gift
• Only What is Needed
• Smile on the World
• The time is NOW
• Discover Amazing Things
• We’re All Connected

The side that came up was then considered by each individual at the table who shared thoughts on how this concept could be lived each day.
Mundell related how caring for our common home has deep roots in the Catholic faith. He pointed out that scripture is full of references to the obligation we have in preserving the earth’s riches, that numerous saints including St. John of the Cross, St. John Chrysostom, St. Francis of Assisi, and more recently, St. Teresa of Calcutta spoke on that concept. Thomas Merton wrote about it and Pope Paul VI, Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict the XVI, and Pope Francis preached on it. Care for God’s creation is part of the fabric of Catholic Social Teaching.

Other table-top discussions included how to form Care for Creation committees, and how to network with other parishes, schools, and organizations to work for progress in sustainable practices. Participants talked about resources and expertise available in their parishes to set goals, and plan and implement ecological best practices.
Mundell observed, “We all must undergo an ecological conversion every day, every moment.” He added, “We’re tasked with bringing people on the journey.”

Mundell and his daughter, Sara Mundell, who is also a leader in the Action Platform effort, introduced 12 ways a parish can live in more sustainable ways that are less damaging to the Earth. The recommendations included reining in over-consumption and wastefulness, education about the natural world and how it teaches that everything is connected, encouraging gratitude for life and nature, and promoting environmental justice.

Despite the challenges the world faces in the current climate crisis, Mundell says the situation is not hopeless and he encourages people to take action now. “The planet needs us. I find hope in Catholic schoolchildren who replace their throw-away lunch plates with reusable ones. I find hope in a priest whose parish plants two hundred trees to fight climate change. I find hope in a parish that installs a solar array so that they can invest their monthly savings in supporting outreach programs for the homeless. I find hope in seeing Catholics, Christians, Muslims and Jews working together on climate action and creation care, when they have never worked on any project together before. I find hope in religious sisters who commit a part of their retirement funds and savings to providing grants to people who start creation care projects in their neighborhoods. I find hope in a Pope who dares to call us to change the world, to become protagonists in the fight for survival of thousands of species.”

To help start this change process on the local level Mundell provided participants with a guide to developing a parish Action Platform plan, a handout on 12 ways a parish can live Laudato Si’, and a series of suggested steps parishes can use to develop an Action Platform reflection.
Mundell used the analogy of a river to explain the power of connected efforts. A river is one of the most powerful forces on earth, able to cut through rock and form deep canyons, but it starts from many small streams, that in turn start from even smaller trickles of water. And just so, individual efforts can flow together forming powerful movements to transform how our earth will once again flourish. Mundell reminds us that, “The pope is calling us all of us. We as a church need to be the arms, legs, heart and soul at the parish level to give authentic witness to the world.”

Participants left the three-hour workshop armed with a new outlook, a load of practical resources, and much gratitude toward the Environmental Concerns Committee and Epiphany for providing an inspiring experience.