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Fr. Joseph Chamblain, O.S.M. Pastor

 

9/28/2025 Fr. John T. Pawlikowski, OSM
PLANET EARTH NEEDS OUR HELP

(This column was written by Fr. John Pawlikowski, a member of our Servite Community at Assumption and Professor Emeritus of Social Ethics at Catholic Theological Union)

In 2025 we celebrate the tenth anniversary of Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si, which made care for creation a core concern of Christian faith. This encyclical has influenced the global community, well beyond the Catholic Church. The Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, himself a Catholic, has spoken enthusiastically about the importance of the late Pope’s vision. 

Pope Leo XIV has reaffirmed support for Laudato Si’ at the outset to his papacy. On October 1 he plans to issue a major statement outlining his own approach to the ecological crisis. During his papacy the Catholic church will continue to work with other Christian communities in an agreed upon common feast day of creation in the liturgical year. In a recent Sunday Angelus address in Vatican City, Pope Leo spoke of the growing threat of further planetary destruction caused by human action. The Vatican also released a video in which Pope Leo prayed: “Help us to discover your presence in all creation, so that, in fully recognizing it, we may feel and know ourselves to be responsible for this common home where you invite us to care for, respect, and protect life in all its forms and possibilities.”

Particularly important in this papal prayer is Leo’s use of language calling our earthly existence as taking place in “our common home,” shared by all created beings, human and non-human. This represents a significant reorientation of Catholic thinking. In the past centuries, with the exception of St. Francis of Assisi and Hildegard of Bingen, the Catholic Church’s prayer tradition tended to focus on our future heavenly existence, looking at earthly existence as a period of exile from our true home. Popes Francis and Leo now view our time on earth in a far more hopeful way, a time when we enjoy the beauty of all creation, a vision that includes an obligation to protect this God-given beauty. Pope Leo affirmed that prayer for the sustainability of creation “is more important and urgent than ever,” He sees a vision of creational sustainability as a core element of contemporary spirituality. Given the withdrawal from government responsibility in the current presidential administration, the Church’s understanding of ecological responsibility takes on greater importance.

To achieve this goal of a new spirituality, in which the human community is understood to be integrated with the wider world of creation, will require, as Pope Francis insisted, widespread “ecological conversion.” Global Catholicism, YOU AND ME, must be in the forefront of this conversion. My own conversion began in 1972 when as a young academic I participated in a major conference on human responsibility in Los Angeles. The keynote speaker was Professor Hans Jonas, a social philosopher who had fled Nazi Germany. Early on in this presentation, Jonas uttered a sentence that has become permanently implanted in my consciousness. “We are the first generation forced to ask the question whether future generations will be able to survive on planet earth.” Never had I understood the depth of responsibility that I and the people of my generation now shared for the survival of planet earth and the life it sustains.

Today serious efforts to replace fossil fuels and free our oceans from plastic pollution which dogs our water supplies and destroys human health call loudly for our attention. A plastic pop bottle is estimated to last for 450 years! Global heating continues. The intensification of storms, flooding, and fire are before our eyes. Scientists worldwide are united in their call for keeping yearly global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees. Our response to this deepening crisis must include lifestyle changes, mitigation, adaption, and compensation by the major planetary polluters such as China and the United States. As citizens of a democratic society, we also need to express to our political representatives our urgent concern about ecological deterioration. The International Court of Justice recently affirmed that large nations have a legal responsibility to compensate island states and small states who suffer the negative effects of pollution by large countries.

Let us respond as Catholics to the challenge of ecological responsibility to which Popes Frances and Leo have summoned us. As a final note, if anyone has further questions about this pastoral message, I can be reached by email at pawlikowskijohn20@gmail.com.

                                                                               Fr. John Pawlikowski, O.S.M.

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This list includes the last thirteen months of messages.
Click on a date to see the message.

   
10/5/2025   THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE OF GRIEF
9/28/2025   PLANET EARTH NEEDS OUR HELP
9/21/2025   BRIDGING THE GAP
9/14/2025   APPRECIATING ORDINARY TIME
9/7/2025   WOULD IT HAVE MADE A DIFFERENCE?
8/31/2025   RENEWING OUR MINISTRIES
8/17/2025   TALKING ABOUT CHURCH TALK
8/24/2025   EIGHTY YEARS LATER
8/10/2025   HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!
8/3/2025   CHASING "THE WORLD'S LARGEST"
7/27/2025   GOING NOWHERE SLOWLY
7/20/2025   LESSONS FROM A FLOOD
7/13/2025   YOU AND ME AND THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH
7/5/2025   A FRESH LOOK AT THE SACRED HEART
6/15/2025   ARE YOUR GIFTS GATHERING DUST?
6/22/2025   WHO BELONGS HERE?
6/29/2025   SPEAKING OF MONEY
6/8/2025   A PRESENT TO OPEN
6/1/2025   JESUS NEEDS TO GO AWAY
5/25/2025   CHANGING THE CULTURE
5/18/2025   QUESTIONS ABOUT THE NEW POPE
4/6/2025   CLUELESS ABOUT THE FUTURE
4/13/2025   GLORY DAYS HAVE PASSED ME BY
4/20/2025   THE BAD NEWS AND THE GOOD NEWS
4/27/2025   THE DEATH OF POPE FRANCIS
5/4/2025   THE SPIRIT OF POPE FRANCIS
5/11/2025   THE SERIOUS SIDE OF HOLIDAYS
3/30/2025   THE BODY OF CHRIST IN ACTION
3/23/2025   WHERE DO WE FIND HOPE?
3/2/2025   A SPRINGTIME OF FAITH
3/9/2025   SAILING THROUGH LENT WITH NOAH
3/16/2025   THE IMPACT OF POPE FRANCIS
2/16/2025   TOGETHER WE BRING HOPE
2/23/2025   THE FUTURE OF LOVE?
1/26/2025   WHAT IS A JUBILEE YEAR?
2/2/2025   BEING THE ADULT IN THE ROOM
2/9/2025   MEANDERING THROUGH FEBRUARY
1/12/2025   GOD PITCHED HIS TENT HERE
1/19/2025   ONE DAY DOWN SOUTH
1/5/2025   A SEASON OF EPIPHANIES
12/29/2024   OPENING UP IN THE NEW YEAR
12/22/2024   AN ADVANTAGE TO BEING SMALL
11/30/2024   HOPE IN THE DARKNESS OF DECEMBER
12/8/2024   A DEEP DIVE INTO CHURCH LEGISLATION
12/15/2024   SOMETHING NEW THAT'S VERY OLD
11/24/2024   WHY WE OBSERVE THANKSGIVING
11/3/2024   HOW ABOUT SOME GOOD NEWS?
11/10/2024   TREADING ON THIN ICE
11/17/2024   TRY TO REMEMBER
9/29/2024   GENERATION TO GENERATION
9/15/2024   OUT OF TOWN ON BUSINESS
9/22/2024   IT'S ALMOST DINNER TIME
10/6/2024   WHAT'S MY CALLING?
10/13/2024   RUNNING THE MARATHON OF LIFE
10/27/2024   AUTUMN AND THE INNER LIFE
10/20/2024   FR. MICHAEL DOYLE, O.S.M. (1938-2024).