OUR PARISH, OUR PLANET

FALL 2021

THE SCENE IS LIKE A POSTCARD from the glory of God’s creation. On a sunny morning in early June, Sr. Maco Cassetta, CND, in a well-worn beige bucket hat and with gardening tools at hand, is leading a crew of 18 or so parishioners on the grounds of St. John the Evangelist Church in White Plains. Against a backdrop of deep blue sky, rich brown soil and vibrant green foliage, they are planting tomatoes, peppers, beans, basil and parsley, transforming four raised beds – roughly 128 square feet of earth – into a microcosm of a better tomorrow.

These amateur agriculturists, ranging in age from toddlers to middle age, are on the front lines of the Metro New York Catholic Climate Movement (MNYCCM), a network of parishes and Catholic leaders formed in 2015 – a few months before publication of Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato si’: On Care for Our Common Home – to promote Catholic teachings regarding the care of the earth. The organization seeks to raise awareness and spur action throughout the metropolitan New York area  in response to the global environmental crisis. To date, MNYCCM includes Laudato si’ ministries in a dozen Archdiocese of New York parishes.

To be sure, the garden at St. John the Evangelist is small, its plantings limited to a dozen varieties of vegetables and herbs. The harvest, delivered to the needy through a local food pantry, will not make a significant dent in global hunger and malnutrition. Yet the work of these parishioners and others like them – all over the archdiocese, the country and the world – delivers real benefits in their local communities, and has the potential to help heal the planet.

“Education is primary,” Sr. Cassetta says. In addition to starting the garden and hosting talks on how human behavior affects ecological conditions, this parish ministry sponsors community cleanup days and offers herb kit starters for worshippers to take home. During the pandemic, volunteers sewed “Care of Creation” face masks for parishioners. “We’re encouraging people to have a relationship to the earth,” she says. “Our relationship with the earth is a reflection of how we relate to our God.”

OUR OBLIGATION TO TAKE CARE OF GOD'S CREATION is not a new idea in the Catholic Church. In Laudato si’, Pope Francis traces the theme through the writings of his papal predecessors and as far back as the teachings of St. Francis of Assisi in the Middle Ages. In fact, the notion is embedded in our faith from its very beginnings.

“Let’s go back to ‘first things,’” says Tom Dobbins, justice and peace director for Catholic Charities of New York and the archdiocese’s liaison with MNYCCM. “In Genesis, the first book of the Bible, God created the air, the sea, the land, the trees and the animals. He placed human beings there and gave them dominion and stewardship over all of it. There’s a responsibility built into that. When God gave men and women the earth to care for, he gave it to us in trust.”

What’s at stake in our stewardship of the planet is not only the harmony of nature. It’s about food, shelter, even survival. Essential issues of social justice hang in the balance, because environmental degradation has a disproportionate impact on the underprivileged. “Care of God’s creation is key to taking care of the poor and vulnerable,” Dobbins observes. “There’s no way to care for the life and the dignity of the human person if the environment the person lives in is despoiled.”
 

“EVERYBODY SAYS THAT AS AN INDIVIDUAL YOU CAN'T NECESSARILY DO MUCH," says Bernard Yozwiak, one of the founders of the Care for Creation Ministry at Holy Name of Mary in Croton-on-Hudson, a member of the MNYCCM. “But every individual act is like a pebble thrown into a pond. The ripple affects other people.” If a ripple gains enough momentum, it can become a wave.

Among the numerous ripples set in motion by the Holy Name of Mary ministry, the biggest short-term splash may have been created by the Arise Climate March, which flowed through the streets of Croton in the fall of 2018, timed to coincide with an international meeting of government leaders. After weeks of planning, “we ended up having around 250 people from all over the tristate area,” Yozwiak says, “which is huge in a tiny town like Croton.” The event featured speeches by local political figures, presentations by youth groups, and a talk by Fr. Brian Brennan, then the pastor of Holy Name of Mary.

More recently, the ministry organized an electric vehicle car show and a town hall to promote understanding of a school board proposal to purchase electric buses for the district. Croton is now poised to become one of the first school districts in New York to start operating electric buses.

The ministry’s longest-term impact has come from the Sustainable Sundays speaker series. For more than three years, on the second Sunday of each month, these 90-minute talk and dialogue sessions, on subjects ranging from water conservation to smart energy sources to climate adaptation strategies, have spread awareness, engendered hope and sparked community dialogue. When the pandemic hit, the talks went virtual, but attendance remained high; in more than three years, the series has skipped only one month.

One key to the success of the Holy Name of Mary ministry has been keeping things apolitical. “We try to educate our parish and our community about the issues that are out there,” Yozwiak says. “We’re trying to build coalitions. This crisis is not going to be solved in one program. It’s going to be solved by people working together. So we’re trying to build all the time.”
 

IN SPRING 2021, the Vatican’s Dicastery for Integral Human Development launched the Laudato si’ Action Platform, which it describes as “a unique collaboration between the Vatican, an international coalition of Catholic organizations, and ‘all men and women of good will.’” The plan “looks forward over the next seven years to really concretize the teaching that is in Laudato si’,” says Tom Dobbins of Catholic Charities. “It encourages families, dioceses, parishes and other institutions to really make sustainable development and integral ecology a part of the life of the Church and the local community.”

“This is very exciting,” says Sr. Carol DeAngelo, director of peace, justice and integrity of creation for Sisters of Charity of New York and one of the founders of MNYCCM, “because the pope is envisioning not just things coming from the top down but also from the grass roots up.” By combining the energies of families, community groups and institutions in a shared web of commitment, the program seeks to maximize the impact of what might otherwise seem isolated, insignificant efforts. “We’re doing it together,” Sr. DeAngelo says. “Each of us can only do our little piece, but we’re doing it together.”

The Vatican program also stresses integral ecology, a central idea of Laudato si’: the understanding that all things are interrelated. Under this umbrella, Sr. DeAngelo observes, we can and must address issues of individual lifestyles, economic and business choices, and the suffering of those whose lives are being affected. “When I think of Laudato si’, I can think of the people who are homeless, I can think of the people who are being trafficked. I can think of the need for Sabbath. I can think of my daily choices about how I live my life, what companies I invest in or buy from, what policies I support.”

Deeper than the crisis itself, Sr. DeAngelo reminds us, is the joy and comfort that the natural environment offers to all humans. “Part of what Laudato si’ is saying to us,” she notes, “is we need to step back and soak in the beauty of God’s creation. We need to take time to revel in it and give gratitude for it, and just be with nature.”
 

“WE'RE NOT TALKING ABOUT POLITICS HERE,” Dobbins stresses. “Instead, we’re bringing it back to what our moral obligations are: to care for one another, to care for the least of our brothers and sisters, to care for our common home. That’s why these small groups of people working in the parishes, bringing the care of God’s creation forward, are my heroes. Because they keep their eye on the prize, and they keep bringing forward the fact that this is something we’re called to do as a part of our faith.”

At St. John the Evangelist, Sr. Cassetta stays focused on the mission. “In this parish, we bring it to the level of the people. We know that the environment is being impacted, so let’s be real on what we can do personally to make a difference,” she says. “What gives me hope is the joy of people in their participation – like a seed is being planted in their hearts. We are opening up a space for them to tend their personal gardens, so that whatever seed is being planted in them will flourish.”  

SIDEBAR: HEALING ENERGY

In 2015, the Archdiocese of New York created the Energy Office, with a mission to conserve energy and reduce carbon emissions at Church-run properties. Under director Martin Susz, the office has a lengthening list of accomplishments:

LED lighting upgrades have been completed at 98 parishes, reducing electricity use by 10 million kilowatt-hours a year and saving $1.5 million. 

Solar energy systems are now in use at five elementary schools, three high schools and one church. In addition, a solar “farm” on 24 acres at Gate of Heaven Cemetery is set to begin construction in 2022. It will feed 5 megawatts of carbon-free electricity into the Westchester grid in exchange for energy credits to local parishes.

A geothermal system beneath St. Patrick’s Cathedral has provided all heating and cooling for the cathedral, the archbishop’s residence and the parish house since 2017, reducing carbon emissions by 94,000 kilograms per year.

The office is currently working to apply these technologies at more archdiocesan locations as well as to provide energy efficiency training to many Church employees beginning this fall.

“We’ve come a long way in six years,” Susz says, “but in some ways we’re just getting started.”
 

SIDEBAR: RAISING AWARENESS, GENERATING HOPE

The Metro New York Catholic Climate Movement (MNYCCM) was born out of discussions among a small group of lay faithful and some religious after the 2014 People’s Climate March in New York City. A few months later, Pope Francis published Laudato si’. “What a godsend!” recalls Nancy Lorence of St. Francis Xavier parish in Manhattan, one of MNYCCM’s founders. “In Laudato si’ we had a foundation, a guide, a northern star. It has guided our work ever since.”

In the intervening years, MNYCCM has sponsored workshops and conferences, organized and participated in marches and other public events, provided speakers at parishes and other organizations and helped Catholics establish ministries in their own communities. The group coordinates with the Archdiocese of New York through Catholic Charities of New York. A steering committee composed of core MNYCCM leaders, Catholic Charities liaisons, and representatives from each parish ministry meets once a month to discuss shared goals and next steps. 

Lorence is encouraged when she sees people starting to look for ways to change things for the better. “They begin with small steps in their own lives and lifestyle habits, and their awareness grows from that to taking more public steps,” she says. It’s a blossoming that points to the possibility of a brighter future.

As we enter the Month of Creation (September 1 – October 4), Lorence and all the members of MNYCCM look forward to more collaboration on behalf of our common home. After all, there is grace in doing God’s work, as Lorence notes: “Doing this work with other Catholics gives me joy.”