With Earth Day April 22 and the internationally recognized Season of Creation in September and October, members of the Archdiocesan Care for Creation Team spoke with “Practicing Catholic” radio show host Patrick Conley about their ministry.
School Sister of Notre Dame Kathleen Storms and Adam Fitzpatrick, leader of the team and social mission outreach coordinator for the Center for Mission in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, reflected on Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical “Laudato S’, On Care for Our Common Home,” about faith and the environment.
“Pope Francis builds on the teachings of Sts. Pope John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul II, and the late Pope Benedict to especially care for the earth and care for the poor,” Sister Kathleen told Conley for the show debuting at 9 p.m. on Relevant Radio 1330 AM. Pope Francis very closely links care for creation and care for the poor, she said.
“The poor are most affected by the destruction of Earth,” Sister Kathleen said. “So, for me, it’s kind of a no-brainer. If we look at even our metro area, we have food deserts” and racial inequities, she said.
“It’s really important that we pay attention to this,” she said. “As Catholics, we know from the get-go that our Scriptures talk about God’s gift of creation to all of us. I think we need to really pay attention to how this gift is not being (made) available to the poor.”
“Pope Francis is a powerful witness of how someone who lives in the light of the Resurrection looks at and interacts with every aspect of reality: economics, politics, other living creatures, fellow human beings, nature and societies,” Sister Kathleen said. “Reading the encyclical, one learns that the Resurrection is the keystone of newness in the relationship between me and myself, between me and people, between me and nature, between me and the Church.”
Fitzpatrick explained that his ministry in care for creation stems from his work for the Center for Mission because people concerned about Catholic social teaching and justice are drawn to the needs of the planet.
“Care for creation is one of the seven themes of Catholic social teaching,” Fitzpatrick said. After surveying parishes in 2019 about what they were doing in ministry in regard to the Church’s social teaching, Fitzpatrick said, he decided that care for creation was one area he wanted to build upon.
“Sometimes the key piece of it is just a volunteer emails to express interest in a certain ministry and says they’re willing to do volunteer work with it,” he said. “And then I see that energy, and it’s like ‘all right, let’s go do something with this then, and see where it goes.’ And three years later, we now have a thriving ministry.”
To lear more about the ministry and its current activity, listen to this episode of “Practicing Catholic,” which repeats at 1 p.m. April 22 and 2 p.m. April 23.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest show also includes an interview with Bishop Michael Izen, who reflects on his recent episcopal ordination and new responsibilities; and Paula Kaempffer, the archdiocesan outreach coordinator for restorative justice and abuse prevention, who describes a new ministry for the homebound to receive the Eucharist, and a new support group for victim-survivors of clergy abuse.
Listen to interviews after they have aired at PracticingCatholicShow.com or choose a streaming platform at anchor.fm/practicing-catholic-show.
