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Having just returned from the Mass of the Lord’s Supper—and visiting a few churches on the way home to spend time with the Lord in gardens of repose—I learned that the heavily Catholic island nation of the Philippines has moved Earth Day to better focus on heaven. With Good Friday and Earth Day coinciding this year, some Catholic Ecologists are wondering what to do.

As reported by AFP,

President Benigno Aquino ordered all Earth Day events be held on Monday because most Filipinos would prefer to commemorate Good Friday, a national holiday, his chief aide said on Wednesday.

As for me, I’ll focus solely on Good Friday, but I can’t separate Earth Day from my thoughts, because Salvation History is about all of creation. Any reader of this blog knows this. Still, I’d rather devote myself to observing the great sacrifice of the Creator than wonder how we humans can “save” the planet. Because without...

Gethsemane

And thus, the Great Week of Holy Week enters into the Triduum. The fatal disobedience that took place in Eden begins to be set right by Christ's obedience in another garden, in Gethsemane. Below is a report from Vatican Information Services about our Holy Father's Wednesday reflections on being with our Lord these next few daysand forever.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

VATICAN CITY, 20 APR 2011 (VIS) - In this morning's general audience, celebrated in St. Peter's Square, the Pope spoke on the Easter Triduum, "the three holy days in which the Church commemorates the mystery of Jesus' passion, death, and resurrection."

Benedict XVI explained that "Holy Thursday is the day that commemorates the institution of the Eucharist and ministerial priesthood.

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I attended my first Seder Supper last night with some Jewish friends—old and new. The wonderful company, food, traditions, and many glasses of wine of this Passover feast were punctuated by one of the most moving, joyful and theologically meaningful songs I’ve heard thus far in my 47 years on Earth. Dayeinu is a song that lists the many gifts given to the Nation of Israel by God that allowed their freedom from slavery in Egypt—gifts that brought them to a new life.

The song is simply, unabashedly and joyously grateful. Its title comes from the words of its refrain: “it would have been enough” or “it would be sufficient.” In other words, had God just punished the Egyptian slave owners, then that would have been enough. Had God only freed the Israelites, then that would have been enough. And on it goes.

This is wonderful theology and anthropology: pure appreciation for divine aid, no matter what the form...

In opening Holy Week, His Holiness Benedict XVI preached at St. Peter’s today, giving a rousing reminder to the faithful and the world that—as he noted in his encyclical Spe Salvi—it is love, not science, that redeems the human person. And it is love that’s at that the core of Holy Week.

In his Palm Sunday homily, the Holy Father used the language of natural sciences to reflect the truths of the Gospel. Here, he uses the scientific jargon of gravity so that we may reflect on our own lives. The full homily is here, thanks to Vatican Radio. A video of Benedict's Palm Sunday is below, but here's a key paragraph within his homily:


The Fathers of the Church maintained that human beings stand at the point of intersection between two gravitational fields. First, there is the force of gravity which pulls us down – towards selfishness, falsehood and evil; the gravity which diminishes us and distances us from the

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News of how sound pollution hurts sea life came as a new neighbor, a woodpecker, started waking me every morning about 6 a.m., its beak pummeling my rain gutters. It's as if someone's jackhammering my roof. Now, I’m not a morning person, so my love of nature is tested as I fumble to open windows and shoo the bird away—which I’m sure makes good entertainment for my neighbors.

Noise, in the negative sense of the word, disturbs. Scientists have been studying how noise in ecosystems affects God’s creatures. For instance, on New Year’s Eve in Arkansas, a sudden die off of birds brought widespread media attention and spooked residents. The cause was thought to be the shock waves of nearby fireworks.

More recently, a report published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment gives evidence of damage done to marine life by underwater noise. Kieran Mulvaney provides a good overview in his blog at Discover News. Mulvaney writes, 


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Assisi at sunset

The tomb of the patron saint of animals and ecology has been restored and is being reopened for visitors. As reported by ASNA news,

St. Francis, Italy's patron saint, was buried in a rough-hewn stone sarcophagus in 1230 and lay there until the Catholic Church decided to move his body to an elaborate bronze urn, complete with the seal of the Holy See, in 1818.

This was placed in a newly enlarged crypt under the main altar of the Basilica Inferiore in the saint's home town.

The stone of the crypt and the metal of the urn have been scrubbed and burnished in record time since they were closed for the start of the restoration on February 25.

"This work of extraordinary maintenance was carried out through

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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.