On November 18, 2015 Texas groups came together to announce diverse coalition support of a Climate Resolution which will be presented at the U.N. Climate Conference.
San Antonio—The Texas Drought Project, a non-profit founded in 2008 to educate Texans on climate change, announced in San Antonio November 18th at a press conference at 11AM at the Headwaters Coalition Offices on the grounds of the University of the Incarnate Word, Brigid Oaks area, that they have succeeded in obtaining the signatures of over 220 organizations for their resolution on climate change. The resolution calls for climate negotiators at the U.N. Climate Conference in Paris, set to begin November 30th, to heed the recommendations from the world’s top scientists in setting emissions cuts and asks that negotiators quickly move to keep fossil fuels in the ground.
The Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word San Antonio are proud to be among the co-signers of the Climate Resolution. Speaking on behalf of the Incarnate Word Sisters at the Press Conference was Sister Elizabeth Riebschlaeger, CCVI. Below is her statement:
"On behalf of my religious
congregation, the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word of San Antonio, it
is a joy and a blessing to be invited to join with many of our brothers and
sisters in the interfaith community of Texas in signing onto this Resolution
today. The unity of our voices speaks
to the importance of this issue to all citizens of Texas, the US and the world.
Our strength is in the unity of our hearts and minds and voices, advocating
here for our shared Earth as the Cradle of all Life.
We are entering a season of
celebration of the Mystery of Love and Giving.
It become a season that calls us out of our self-centered, selfish existence
to learn to love unselfishly, to give more than to receive, to forgive and be
forgiven, to reconcile and be reconciled.
It is a season, however, where this season of love for the other has
become a season of self-centered thoughts of what “I” am to receive. Is has become a plunge into rampant
celebration of consumerism that is destroying the planet. To save this planet, we need to recommit to
live out instead, the way of unselfish love and concern for others and our
Common Good. It will require true
conversion of hearts, minds and life choices. It will require the power of Love
to save us.
Pope Francis, who has called us to a
powerful reality check with his encyclical “Laudato Si”, reminds us in Article
207:
“The
Earth Charter asked us to leave behind a period of self-destruction and make a
new start, but we have not as yet developed a universal awareness needed to
achieve this. Here, I would echo that
courageous challenge: ‘As never before
in history, common destiny beckons us to seek a new beginning. . .Let ours be a
time remembered for the awakening of a new reverence for life, the firm resolve
to achieve sustainability, the quickening of the struggle of justice and peace,
and the joyful celebration of life’.”
The children of Texas, our nation and
our world depend on us for their survival.
They live and grow in the world we adults create for them. Let us give clean, plentiful water, clean air
and tillable soil on Earth a chance to survive.
This Earth is the Cradle from which all life springs forth. Let us preserve it as the children’s most
precious inheritance. Let us pray that
our unified voice on behalf of a cleaner, safer Earth will spread, like the
branches of this mighty oak, throughout world to give life and the children a
chance to survive and thrive."
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