Feast of St. Francis: A Catholic Approach to Climate Change

The Catholic Coalition on Climate Change has a wealth of resources on climate change. 

The feast of St. Francis of Assisi is a most appropriate time to use some of these resources to raise our consciousness about this important issue.  St. Francis was concerned both for creation and for those at the margins of society, the ones who very often are affected by the results of climate change yet have the least resources to respond.

CLICK HERE for an excellent presentation on A CATHOLIC APPROACH TO CLIMATE CHANGE.  It may take a while to load, but it's worth the wait.

*  PART I :  CLIMATE CHANGE AND CATHOLIC TEACHING
Slides 1-23 - Click one slide at a time and listen to the narrated presentation.

*  PART II:  VISUAL EVIDENCE OF CLIMATE CHANGE (20 minutes)
Slides 24-26 - There is no audio for these slides.  Click to slide 26 which has an embedded copy of the James Balog TED talk on climate change.  You need to activate the embedded video by clicking on the button outlined in green on the lower left of the dark video screen.  Just move your mouse over the dark screen and the button will appear.

*  PART III:  A CATHOLIC RESPONSE TO CLIMATE CHANGE
Slides 27-31 - Click to slide 28 which shows the 8 core elements of Church teaching that can help inform our response to climate change.
Slide 29 has a statement from Pope Francis.
Slide 30:  Take the "St. Francis Pledge" to PRAY, LEARN, ASSESS, ACT, AND ADVOCATE.

MOVIE:  CLICK HERE to rent or buy the DVD "CHASING ICE," in which acclaimed National Geographic photographer James Balog, once a skeptic about climate change, deploys revolutionary time-lapse cameras to capture a multi-year record of the world's changing glaciers.  The 1 hr 15 min DVD is available from Amazon.com.