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Thanks to Jerome Christenson of the Winona Daily News, here's another notable media entry about the beautiful blending of faith and reason in Catholic thought. You can view the story here, but what follows are some great bits ...

As a Jesuit, Brother Guy Consolmagno is seeking an understanding of God and the universe — through prayer and through his telescope.

Consolmagno is a research astronomer and planetary scientist at the Vatican Observatory. He will speak on “Astronomy, God, and the Search for Elegance” at 7 p.m today in Somsen Auditorium as part of Winona State University’s Big Sky series.

“Most major religions have a concept of ‘the heavens’ ... the perfect realm of the gods,” said Jennifer L.B. Anderson, WSU associate professor of geoscience and one of the organizers of the Big Sky series, and Consolmagno’s talk will address the

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Warning: If you've already bought those Valentine roses, you may want to skip this. Just saying.

One of the dilemmas that any environmentalist has to deal with is guilt—our own, yes, but making others feel guilty, too.

Maybe that’s one reason why ecology and being Catholic go so well together. We can never turn a blind eye to what effects our actions are having on someone else.

Well, just in time for St. Valentine’s Day, here’s some news from The Guardian to make all you buyers of very expensive roses (especially in Europe and the United Kingdom) feel, umm, guilty ...

Consumer appetite for cut-price Kenyan roses for Valentine's Day is "bleeding the country dry" by threatening the region's precarious ecology.

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"A bitter GOP-led hearing on EPA's climate regs highlights an intractable ideological division over whether CO2 rules will create jobs and prosperity."

This is the header of a new and telling Reuters story on the seemingly never ending conflict between the economy and the ecology. The two aren’t always mutually exclusive, but when they are, it sells papers.

Reuters seems to have done a fairly nuanced job in telling this tale of misplaced anger by Republicans at the Environmental Protection Agency, which is countered by the Democrats refusal to acknowledge original sin. An objective reading of the story will show that neither side comes out looking good.

After all, the science of climate change is just that—science—and as such should be given the attention it’s due, and no more.

I’ll have more on this in the future (when I'm not completing a thesis). But for now, read the Reuters story and see where you can spot both ideological...

As if the narcotics business wasn’t causing enough harm to nations, families, human lives and human souls, a new report about the impact of the drug industry on the Colombian environment shows there’s a significant ecological impact as well.

As reported by the American Chemical Society in their publication Environmental Science & Technology,


Cultivating coca bushes, the source of cocaine, is speeding up destruction of rainforests in Colombia and threatening the region’s “hotspots” of plant and animal diversity, scientists are reporting in a new study. The findings, which they say underscore the need for establishing larger protected areas to help preserve biodiversity, appear in ACS’ journal.

Liliana M. Dávalos and colleagues note that the pace of deforestation in olombia has accelerated over the past 20 years, even

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February 2011

The funeral for my mom’s Aunt Rose took place four days after a major winter storm and two days before another. It was a bright morning, but a cold, blustery one—a harsh way to say a goodbye to a strong, feisty, faith-filled woman. Rose fought cancer on and off for fifteen years, and she never flinched at a doctor’s bad news.

A week after the funeral, her daughter-in-law summed it up best: this woman knew how to carry her crosses.

While I drove my mom in the funeral procession through streets narrowed by large heaps of snow, it occurred to me that Rose’s determination to face difficult truths stood in contrast to those who find humor in news of climate change—which, I admit, seems easy to do in the midst of a snowy winter’s single-digit temperatures.

I’ve been studying the science of climate change as part of a project at work; the...

From the Times of India comes the story of a papal envoy to tribal peoples in India. His message was one of solidarity, hope and concern for ecology.

Once again, the Church’s efforts to help the lives of the poor factors in the condition of the environment in which they live, eat, drink and breath.

A few snippets are below:

Ranchi—Archbishop of Westminster Cormac Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor, a representative of Pope Benedict XVI, took home the details of the plight of the tribals of Jharkhand.

Two papers were presented during the symposium both of which highlighted the sorry state of affairs of the tribals. While director of Xavier's Institute of Social Service (XISS) Alex Ekka spoke about the social concerns of Jharkhand highlighting the rich resources of the state and deprivation of the tribals, former principal accountant general of West Bengal Benjamin

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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.