Faith, Food, and the Environment kicks off for the common good

No matter the results at the polling booths here in America tonight, tomorrow and the next day people have to eat and farmers have to farm. And thus the Catholic Church takes a keen interest in how people get their food and how those who provide it can do so safely, morally, with the environment in mind, and be able to raise a family by doing it.

As evidence of this concern, Catholic Rural Life has teamed up with the Vatican, the University of St. Thomas, and a host of other organizations to facilitate conversations here in the United States and connect them with international discussions—most especially in Milan, Italy in 2015.

Faith, Food, and the Environment kicks off tomorrow at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota with over 70 national leaders in environmental studies, agriculture and food production, and moral theology exploring the connection between faith and farming. The developments from the symposium will be used to produce a practical set of resources that will help the next generation of food and agricultural leaders understand how their faith informs their work.

The event was supposed to have included the involvement of Peter Cardinal Turkson, of Ghana, President of the Pontifical Academy of Justice and Peace—which is heavily involved in the Holy See’s ecological engagement. Indeed, the academy and Cardinal Turkson are responsible for much of the initial drafting of Pope Francis’s upcoming encyclical on ecology.

Only yesterday, however, did we learn that Pope Francis has asked Cardinal Turkson to clear his calendar and instead focus on the Church’s necessary ministry in West Africa, where the Ebola crisis continues to spread great sorrow among the people there.

The cardinal’s right hand, Father Michael Czerny, S.J, the Chief of Staff to the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, will attend the symposium in the cardinal’s place.

Father Czerny has been Cardinal Turkson’s top advisor since 2010. Previously, he has served as the founding director of the African Jesuit AIDS Network (2002-2010) and as the Secretary for Social Justice at the Jesuit General Guria, Rome (1992-2002). Born in Czechoslovakia in 1946, Fr. Czerny was raised in Montreal and entered the Society of Jesus in 1963.

According to event organizers, Father Czerny will deliver the cardinal’s prepared remarks on “Faith and the Call for a Human Ecology” as scheduled. The symposium itself—and the broader Vocation of the Agricultural Leader initiative—will continue to move forward with the close collaboration of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

The American episcopate will be well represented with Archbishop John Nienstadt and Bishops Stephen Blaire, Andrew Cozzens, Paul Etienne, Richard Pates, Lee Piche, and Michael Warfel.

Also taking part will be Cecilia Calvo, environmental policy expert at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, as well as Dan Misleh, Executive Director of the Catholic Climate Covenant.

I’ll be blogging (and Tweeting) live from the event on Wednesday and Thursday. Later I’ll follow up with organizers so that you can hear from them about what participants took away from the gathering.

So for now, say a quick prayer that Faith, Food and the Environment robustly continues the work of the Church in fostering a world where farmers can farm and people can eat—and that it can all be done sustainably, morally, and thus with the best interests of the common good in mind.

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About the Blog

Catholic Ecology posts my regular column in the Rhode Island Catholic, as well as scientific and theological commentary about the latest eco-news, both within and outside of the Catholic Church. What is contained herein is but one person's attempt to teach and defend the Church's teachings - ecological and otherwise. As such, I offer all contents of this blog for approval of the bishops of the Church. It is my hope that nothing herein will lead anyone astray from truth.