Feature 10 November 2009 | Pastoral reflection ‘The Cry of the Earth’

10 Nov 2009

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The Cry of the Earth, the Irish Bishops’ Conference pastoral reflection on the challenges of climate change, is available to download in English, Irish and Polish languages, alongside an accompanying video.

 


Launch of The Cry of the Earth

On Tuesday 10 November in the St Francis of Assisi Primary School in Belmayne, Dublin – located beside Fr Collins Park – the Irish Bishops’ Conference launched a new pastoral reflection addressing our Christian responsibility to care for the environment. Fr Collins Park is sustained using renewable energy.

Archbishop Dermot Clifford and the pupils of St Francis of Assisi primary school launched the pastoral reflection The Cry of the Earth and its accompanying DVD (please view below). Special packs have been distributed to parishes throughout the country and the pastoral reflection is available on this site in English, Irish and Polish. This parish pack also includes a specially designed postcard from Trócaire which contains a prayer for creation and outlines how everyone can make a difference to the global issue of trocaire_cardclimate change.


Foreword to The Cry of the Earth

button_cry_of_the_earthGod, in whom we live and move and have our being, has given us the gift of this beautiful earth. Creation flows out of the heart of an infinitely loving Creator. Touched by God’s hand, our world is holy.

Our earth is also complex. Its systems of life are interdependent and finely balanced. Small changes in one part of the planet’s rhythms and systems can have significant, if not dramatic, consequences for the whole of the earth and its creatures. This makes global climate change one of the most critical issues of our time. How we respond to climate change will have consequences for the future of every person and every form of life on the earth.

In Caritas in Veritate, Pope Benedict XVI has reminded us that the ‘environment is God’s gift to everyone, and in our use of it we have a responsibility towards the poor, towards future generations and towards humanity as a whole … The Church has a responsibility towards creation and she must assert this responsibility in the public sphere’(nn. 48 and 51).

In this pastoral reflection, individuals, parish communities and all people of good will are invited to reflect on ‘that covenant between human beings and the environment, which should mirror the creative love of God, from whom we come and towards whom we are journeying’ (CV n. 50). It is an invitation to reflect on the challenges of climate change and the actions we can take to address its potentially negative consequences.


Video reflection to accompany The Cry of the Earth

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