Saint Francis Of Assisi: Environmental Activism In The Catholic Church

Environmental activism or environmental awareness in the Catholic Church can go back as far as the 1100s. One of the earliest and the original Catholic environmentalist is Saint Francis of Assisi. Pope Francis paid homage to the Church’s patron saint of animals and ecologists by naming his encyclical “Laudato Si” (“Praised Be”), a line taken from St. Francis of Assisi’s “Canticle of Creatures.”Saint Francis composed the canticle in 1225, and dedicated the first of its three parts to praising the Lord through various natural elements, including “Sister Mother Earth / who sustains and governs us.” Known for his love of animals and the Earth (and for apparently preaching to birds), Pope John Paul II made Saint Francis the patron saint of ecologists

Catholic Bishops, who stands for the Environmental problems represent ‘moral challenge’In 1981, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement on the moral implications of the global energy crisis, titled “Reflections on the Energy Crisis.” In the statement, the USCCB argued that energy planners must take into account the impact of energy production on human life, arguing that if it’s in the interest of the common good to make sacrifices related to energy use, mankind should make those sacrifices

“This means rising above a preoccupation with material gain.” In 1991, the USCCB issued a pastoral statement which called the environmental crisis “a moral challenge” and argued that environmental ethics are an integral part of Catholic teaching — a move that gave environmental concerns added legitimacy within the Church. “What I have heard time and time again from local groups is that if the bishops say something, it’ll be a lot easier for us,” Kearns said. “To go even farther than that, and to have it listed as a Catholic social teaching, was even more significant.” The fourth environmentalist is Pope John Paul II: Environmentalism ‘is linked to a command of