Yahweh's Garden

Globally, Roman Catholics possess stock in many of the world’s most notorious international corporations. These corporations survive by the behest of shareholders. If the Vatican and all Roman Catholic institutions, dioceses, hospitals, colleges and universities, and parishioners were directed for the Scriptural reasons of care of Creation and the poor to immediately begin the process of divesting from corporations that are not living up to moral responsibilities to their workers, communities, and the environment and other species, and began investing instead in socially responsible ventures, think what could be accomplished! As divestment worked to help change South Africa, it could work in this, international corporation reform and planetary survival. Such a Catholic campaign would be the best possible to tool to teach all Catholics and the world what the Office of Peace and Justice's statement on "international Monetary and Financial Systems" states: …the prima...

On Tuesday night, NPR Court Correspondent Nina Totenberg observed what a change there had been in the American people in ten years as she reported on the health care debates at the Supreme Court. She remembered the time of outrage when citizens discovered that people were dying or becoming injured for life when they were turned away from emergency rooms for lack of the means to pay. This had led to a unanimous decision that if care was available and could stop death or severe injury, it shouldn’t be withheld based on money. Now she is witnessing rallies when crowds posed with the question of what to do with these people at emergency rooms calling out “Let them die!” (How Lenten – they sound like the crowds shouting for the release of Barabas.) And three court justices have queried whether we should do this, a question that would not have even been acceptable in times past. Our hottest movie for youth right now is “Hunger Games”, where adults from the government force youth to play...

On Wednesday, August 3, I attended the memorial service of a mighty, gentle woman -- Nina Leopold Bradley -- the eldest daughter of the conservationist family Aldo and Estella Leopold. This was not a religious service and yet the spiritual underpinnings were evident in all the short speeches about Nina -- her deep respect for the relationships of people to each other and people to the land, which were her passions, like those of her father (and many members of the Leopold clan). A recurring theme was how Nina listened to you with such intensity and delight that she made you feel like you were her very closest companion and she believed you could do anything you dreamed -- and then you found out that she did that for everyone, and it was true every time she listened. Like Aunt Mary, she was a great woman of the woods and the prairies -- and of people. The people gathered to remember and celebrate and mourn the loss of Nina did not pray together, but there was a deep reverence and c...

The first ever such service exuded joy on a beautiful fall day, where the animals and people gathered together to praise God, remember the stories of creation, bless the animals and the harvest and the children and expectant parents, and all those who do God's work with the land -- the farmers, gardeners, and wild lands and animals specialists, the foresters and tree planters. The youth, in Scripture readings and pageantry helped us celebrate, and then encouraged by words from John Paul II, we then, as adults, as forgiveness for all of creation and life that we have failed to care for as God asked us to. For a recap and photos, go to www.stpatrickofhudson.org and http://www.stpatrickofhudson.org/pictures.aspx IF you wish to organize this in your community, here is the template: Celebration of Creation and a Responsibility for LIFE Prayer Service Following the Model of St. Francis Held outdoors near St. Francis’s feast day. If it rains, we will have to do the blessings o...

This October 10, 2010, grassroots work party events will be held all around the world, networked through www.350.org to try to push for greater, more immediate actions to slow climate change. For myself, I looked around and felt the greatest immediate work that needed to be done in my community was to change hearts and minds to be ready to act. So I wrote a Christian prayer service, based in Scripture, celebrating life and calling all to responsibility and asking for help from the Holy Spirit. Connected to this, tn the online journal Minding Nature from the Center for Humans and Nature, there is an article (starting on page 35) by me entitled "Conservation and the Catholic Imagination" at http://www.humansandnature.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Minding-Nature-v3n2-August-2010.pdf. I hope it prompts some interesting discussions!

This year's hot temperatures along with all the other scientific date have proven that climate change is real and all who believe in a loving Creator who gave us this planet need to get to work. John Paul II said: When the ecological crisis is set within the broader context of the search for peace within society, we can understand better the importance of giving attention to what the earth and its atmosphere are telling us: namely, that there is an order in the universe which must be respected, and that the human person, endowed with the capability of choosing freely, has a grave responsibility to preserve this order for the well-being of future generations. I wish to repeat. The ecological crisis is a moral crisis! {emphasis is the pope’s own} It's time for all who treasure God's creation to join with others to call for national and international and individual actions to preserve it. Here's Bill McKibben's prophetic voice: We're Hot as Hell and We'r...