Catégorie : Vie de l’église

On Friday morning, a Siena senior read a letter from the pope, who encouraged the symposium to draw attention to the ethical and spiritual implications of the global environmental crisis.

« The gravity of the threats to our common home calls not only for technical and political solutions, » Francis wrote. « It likewise demands an ecological conversion which recognizes that issues of environmental justice cannot be separated from the greater pursuit of an integral human development for all the members of our human family, especially the poor and those who have no voice. »

In his speech, Guterres described a world « in trouble, » one « witnessing real-time climate collapse » due to emissions released primarily from human activities such as burning coal, oil and gas.

He pointed to high-temperature records shattering around the globe and extreme weather becoming more intense — from hurricanes striking the United States and the Caribbean, to blistering heat in Africa and Asia — and massive coral bleaching « caused by unprecedented ocean temperatures. »

« All this puts peace and justice in peril, as St. Francis would have understood, » Guterres said.

It was Franciscan connections that led to the U.N. secretary-general’s appearance, albeit by video, at Siena College.

Br. Michael Perry, who served as head of the global Franciscan order from 2013 to 2021 and now directs Siena’s Laudato Si’ Center for Integral Ecology, met in April alongside two fellow Franciscans with the secretary-general about participating in the symposium.

A native of Portugal, Guterres said his personal links to the Franciscans « run deep, » as a Franciscan priest and lifelong friend presided at both his wedding ceremonies, baptized his children and has celebrated Mass in his home.

« And as an António from Lisbon, I have a strong connection with Santo António, one of the first Franciscans, » he said.

But it was a Jesuit named Francis — Pope Francis — that the U.N. leader cited most, including his 2015 encyclical « Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home. »

« Pope Francis tells us that, and I quote, ‘When we exploit creation, we destroy the sign of God’s love for us.’ He reminded us that human beings are custodians of this creation, not masters of it, » Guterres said. « We must stop intentionally destroying our natural world and its gifts. We must protect people from the destruction we have unleashed, and we must deliver climate justice for the vulnerable. »

While his video speech played in New York, Guterres was in Laos for a U.N. summit with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, where he also addressed climate change.

A busy fall awaits the secretary-general, with three major international environmental meetings in the next several months.

Later in October, countries will gather in Cali, Colombia, for the COP16 biodiversity conference, the first since nations in 2022 reached an agreement to halt and reverse the rapid loss of biodiversity, with a target of conserving 30% of the world’s lands and waters by 2030. Then in November the COP29 U.N. climate conference will begin in Baku, Azerbaijan. And later that month, countries will convene in South Korea for the fifth and final round of negotiations on a global plastic pollution treaty.

Scientists have stated global emissions need to decline by 43% over the next five years to keep the 1.5 C temperature limit within reach. A study published this week in the scientific journal Nature found that scenarios where global temperatures temporarily surpass, or « overshoot, » 1.5 C would still see some climate impacts persisting for hundreds if not thousands of years, while others would be irreversible.

Guterres called it « vital » to achieve the 1.5 C target.

« Every fraction of a degree of global heating counts. The difference between the temperature rise at 1.5 and 2 degrees could be the difference between extinction and survival for some small island states and coastal communities, and the difference between minimizing climate chaos or crossing dangerous tipping points, » he said, such as the collapse of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica.

Guterres added it was essential that developed nations, like the U.S., follow through on past promises of financing to assist developing countries reducing their emissions and adapting to climate impacts they’re already facing, and contribute to the new Loss and Damage Fund. Climate finance will be a main focus at COP29.

« Developing countries can neither cut emissions nor protect themselves if money is not available. … This must change, » Guterres said.

The U.N. chief told the Siena community that religious communities and young people have « a vital role » to play in advancing action on climate change. On Friday, Siena President Charles Seifert, along with Perry and board president Thomas Baldwin Jr., publicly signed a resolution on sustainability that the board adopted in March.

Throughout other sessions of the conference, conversations about what students can do about climate change continually turned to the November elections.

« As citizens and especially young people and students, » said Medha Palnati, a Siena alumna who is currently a medical student at Albany Medical College, « our voice in government really matters, and we can vote and also advocate for local change. »

A millionaire’s daughter who married the future senator and attorney general in 1950, Ethel Kennedy had endured more death by the age of 40, for the whole world to see, than most people would in a lifetime.

She was by Robert F. Kennedy’s side when he was fatally shot in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968, just after winning California’s Democratic presidential primary. Her brother-in-law had been assassinated in Dallas less than five years earlier.

Her parents were killed in a plane crash in 1955, and her brother died in a 1966 crash. Her son David Kennedy overdosed, son Michael Kennedy died in a skiing accident and nephew John F. Kennedy Jr. in a plane crash. Another nephew, Michael Skakel, was found guilty of murder before the Connecticut Supreme Court ultimately vacated his conviction. And in 2019, her granddaughter Saoirse Kennedy Hill died of an apparent overdose.

« One wonders how much this family must be expected to absorb, » family friend Philip Johnson, founder of the Robert F. Kennedy Foundation, told the Boston Herald after Michael Kennedy’s death.

Ethel Kennedy sustained herself through faith and devotion to family.

« She was a devout Catholic and a daily communicant, and we are comforted in knowing she is reunited with the love of her life, our father, Robert F. Kennedy; her children David and Michael; her daughter-in-law Mary; her grandchildren Maeve and Saorise and her great-grandchildren Gideon and Josie. Please keep our mother in your hearts and prayers, » the family statement said.

Ethel’s mother-in-law, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, initially wondered how she would handle so much tragedy.

« I knew how difficult it was going to be for her to raise that big family without the guiding role and influence that Bobby would have provided, » Rose recalled in her memoir, Times to Remember. « And, of course, she realized this too, fully and keenly. Yet she did not give way. »

Ethel Kennedy founded the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights soon after her husband’s death and advocated for causes including gun control and human rights. She rarely spoke about her husband’s assassination. When her filmmaker daughter Rory brought it up in the 2012 HBO documentary, « Ethel, » she couldn’t share her grief.

« When we lost Daddy … » she began, then teared up and asked that her youngest daughter « talk about something else. »

Many of her progeny became well known. Daughter Kathleen became lieutenant governor of Maryland; Joseph represented Massachusetts in Congress; Courtney married Paul Hill, who had been wrongfully convicted of an Irish Republican Army bombing; Kerry became a human rights activist and president of the RFK center; Christopher ran for Illinois governor; Max served as a prosecutor in Philadelphia and Douglas reported for Fox News Channel.

Her son Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also became a national figure — first as an environmental lawyer and more recently as a conspiracy theorist spreading false theories about vaccines. He ran for president as an independent after briefly challenging Biden, and his name remained on ballots in multiple states after he suspended his campaign and endorsed Donald Trump.

Ethel Kennedy did not comment publicly on her son’s actions, although several other family members denounced him.

Decades earlier, she seemed to thrive on her in-laws’ rising power, enthusiastically backing the 1960 campaign and hosting some of the era’s most well-attended parties at their Hickory Hill estate in McLean, Virginia, including one where historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. was pushed fully clothed into the swimming pool. In the Kennedy spirit, she also was a highly competitive tennis player.

« Petite and peppy Ethel, who doesn’t look one bit the outdoorsy type, considers outdoor activity so important for the children that she has arranged her busy Cabinet-wife schedule so she can personally take them on two daily outings, » The Washington Post reported in 1962.

Accompanying her husband on a round-the-world goodwill tour, she said it was important for Americans to meet ordinary people overseas.

« People have a distinct liking for Americans, » she told the Post. « But the Communists have been so vocal, it was a surprise for some Asians to hear America’s point of view. It is good for Americans to travel and get our viewpoint across. »

She divided her time between homes in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, and Palm Beach, Florida, after Hickory Hill, which they bought from John and Jackie Kennedy in 1957, was sold in 2009 for $8.25 million.

Born Ethel Skakel on April 11, 1928, she grew up in a 31-room English country manor house in Greenwich, Connecticut, as the sixth of seven children of coal magnate George and Ann Brannack Skakel. She met Robert Kennedy through his sister Jean, her roommate at Manhattanville College.

The newlyweds moved to Charlottesville, Virginia, where he finished his last year of law school at the University of Virginia, and helped expand her world view by introducing her to people like Ralph Bunche, the first person of color to win the Nobel Peace Prize. They decided the safest place for him to stay during his visit was in their home.

« He was so charming and non-complaining, but they did throw things at our house all night long. It was so unthinkable and outrageous, but you got a little taste of what Black people in our country had to go through at that time, » she said in the documentary.

Robert Kennedy became chief counsel to the Senate Select Committee in 1957, and then was appointed attorney general by his brother in 1960.

She supported his successful 1964 campaign for the U.S. Senate in New York and his subsequent presidential bid. Pregnant with their 11th child when he was gunned down by Sirhan Sirhan, her look of shock and horror was captured in images that remained indelible decades later.

The assassination traumatized the family, especially son David Kennedy, just 12 years old when he watched the news in a hotel room. He never recovered, struggling with addiction for years before overdosing in 1984.

In 2021, she said Sirhan should not be released from prison, a view not shared by some others in her family. Two years later, a California panel denied him parole.

Although Ethel Kennedy was linked to several men after her husband’s death, most notably the singer Andy Williams, she never remarried.

On the 40th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., she visited Indianapolis, where a monument commemorates the speech her husband gave that night in 1968, credited with averting rioting in the city.

« Of all the Kennedy women, she was the one I would end up admiring the most, » Harry Belafonte would write of her. « She wasn’t playacting. She looked at you and immediately got what you were about. Often in the coming years, when Bobby was balking at something we wanted him to do for the movement, I’d take my case to Ethel. ‘We have to talk to him,’ she’d say, and she would. »

In 2008, she joined brother-in-law Ted Kennedy and niece Caroline Kennedy in endorsing Sen. Barack Obama for president, likening him to her late husband. She later went to the Obama White House to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom and meet Pope Francis. Obama called her « a dear friend with a passion for justice, an irrepressible spirit, and a great sense of humor. »

« She touched the lives of countless people around the world with her generosity and grace, and was an emblem of enduring faith and hope, even in the face of unimaginable grief, » Obama said on social media, one of many high-profile eulogies.

Obama and former President Bill Clinton held her hands as they climbed stairs to lay a wreath at President Kennedy’s grave site on the 50th anniversary of his death. Clinton remembered her on Thursday as a « fierce fighter for justice and equality » who built « one of the most effective human rights organizations in the world. »

The center she founded still advances human rights through litigation, advocacy, education and inspiration, giving annual awards to journalists, authors and others who have made significant contributions to human rights.

She also was active in the Coalition of Gun Control, Special Olympics, and the Earth Conservation Corps. And she showed up in person, participating in a 2016 demonstration in support of higher pay for farmworkers in Florida and a 2018 hunger strike against the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

« She could be found anywhere human dignity was at stake, from picket lines to prisons, on every corner of the map, » Clinton said. « She was fearless and indefatigable, a true force of nature, guided by the teachings of her faith that call upon all of us to serve others. »

The American Forests fund aims to empower faith groups to increase tree canopy specifically in parts of cities that have historically suffered from discrimination and disinvestment.

Trees do more than add beauty and color to a neighborhood. They improve quality of life by providing fresh air; removing pollution and planet-warming emissions from the atmosphere; preventing soil erosion and cleaning water; providing animal habitats; and keeping neighborhoods cooler — a benefit especially important in cities where the urban heat island effect traps heat and raises temperatures. In addition, trees can add financial value to homes and neighborhoods.

Redlining and other discriminatory development policies have played a major role in where trees were planted, and where they weren’t, Aljabar said.

« We know certainly that there’s a direct correlation between the practice of redlining and a lack of trees and tree canopy today. And so that’s even decades later we’re still grappling with that impact, » she told EarthBeat.

Data from American Forests’ Tree Equity Score tool — which maps the country’s tree cover in cities and urban areas alongside census data on race, income, heat exposure and other social factors — found on average lower-income communities have 26% less tree cover and temperatures 6 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than wealthier areas, while communities of color have 38% less tree cover and 13 F hotter temperatures than white neighborhoods.

« That really has life or death implications, » Aljabar said.

A first round of the tree equity fund awarded more than $25 million to 33 municipalities and three community-based organizations. In developing the second round, American Forests conversed with at least a dozen faith organizations, including Catholic Climate Covenant, the Evangelical Environmental Network, Interfaith Partners for the Chesapeake and the National Religious Partnership for the Environment.

Cassandra Carmichael, executive director of National Religious Partnership for the Environment, told EarthBeat there’s high interest in tree planting among many faith communities. They make  ideal partners, she said, since they’re often cornerstones in their neighborhoods and places people turn in moments of crisis.

« Congregations are community hubs, » she said.

Her organization, based in Washington, D.C., partners with groups that include the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and plans to apply for an American Forests grant. It has identified potential projects with congregations in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida.

Creation Justice Ministries, also based in Washington, D.C., is planning to apply for funding as well. It envisions using a portion of the funds to create resources and workshops for its partners and provide subgrants for specific projects.

Avery Davis Lamb, Creation Justice Ministries co-executive director, said faith communities hold capital important for tree planting that other institutions may lack: land capital, social capital through community connections, and moral capital « to build the social and spiritual infrastructure that we need for a climate resilient future. »

But barriers exist to tree planting, beginning with costs.

Tree growing incurs more than the going rate of a tree, which depending on the species can run several hundred dollars. Costs include preparation and planning, education and training, and planting and maintaining.

Planting in urban areas adds unique challenges. The environment is harsher and more stressful on trees, with roads and infrastructure presenting hazards to a tree’s health. That leads to more planning and maintenance.

« If you’ve ever planted a tree before, you can’t just stick it in the ground and say, ‘OK, I’m done.’ You have to nurture and care for that tree and maintain that tree for years and years, » Carmichael said.

While a project’s location, size and focus are major cost variables, individual projects that received $100,000 grants from American Forests in the first round of funding planted 229 to 600 trees. Grant recipients can tap into American Forests’ expertise on trees, education and training.

Because the grants are based on federal funds with strict reporting requirements, the money will come as reimbursements, presenting another potential cost barrier for faith organizations or congregations to cover the costs upfront or find other sources.

« I understand why they’re doing it. I’m not faulting them for that. But the process is flawed, » Carmichael said, « because it makes it very difficult for under-resourced, for non-resourced groups to be able to apply for funding. »

Other obstacles for tree planting include a lack of awareness of the importance of trees for public health, a lack of training and resources to properly grow and maintain trees, and the challenge of connecting planting trees to matters of justice and faith.

« It’s not immediately obvious why planting an oak tree in the church lawn is a justice issue, right? » Lamb said. « There’s a few threads to connect here: threat to air quality, the threat to heat stress, the connection to the fact that redlining maps overlay almost perfectly onto tree canopy maps. »

The faith groups say $8 million, while not enough to solve the problem of tree inequity, can make a meaningful difference in local communities.

Grants like those from American Forests can show to other funders that faith organizations have an important role to play in future urban forestry efforts, Carmichael added.

« [To show] that yes, here’s the script, here’s the proof that what we said can do we can actually do. »

Meyer joined women from other countries Oct. 2, who gathered to pray near the Vatican so that synod participants would consider the importance of ordination to the priesthood and other roles for women, even as talk of women’s diaconate was taken off the synod agenda. 

« It’s not just standing here on the street corner, but there’s so many people here in Rome right now that are on the periphery, guided by the spirit, to let these voices be known, » she said. « And even if we don’t have a space at the center, the Spirit’s not given up, so I’m not giving up either. »

Women, and some men, from Poland, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, the U.S., England, Wales and South Africa are participating in events organized in Rome by Women’s Ordination Worldwide movement as the synod, a four-year worldwide consultation process, is taking place at the Vatican, Meyer said. Many, including Meyer, were disappointed when Pope Francis  responded « no » to a journalist’s question about whether he supported the diaconate for women. Some had been hopeful that opening the diaconate to women meant the church would one day be open to women priests. 

« When someone speaks their truth, I believe them, » Meyer told National Catholic Reporter Oct. 2. « And I believe that there is no intention to truly and sincerely consider women’s vocations [to the priesthood] at this point in time, because if there was any sincerity, our conversations would be open. They wouldn’t be relegated to spaces inside. »

« It’s disappointing to hear reports leak about what could possibly take place in the future to appease those fighting for ordination of women and tease that perhaps it will happen decades from now. In the end, it has much to do with those in clerical positions who feel that their gender attaches them to their sense of purpose, » Meyer said.

« It’s not their genitalia, » she said. « It is the personhood and the gifts that come within and how you’re moved by the Spirit. Discernment needs to be about something so much deeper than your chromosomes. »

Being moved by the Spirit is what Meyer said she experienced at age 10 as one of her diocese’s first female altar servers in her Bartonville, Illinois, parish.

« I’ve loved Mass my whole life. I hung on the Liturgy of the Word. Participating in the Eucharist always felt deeply personal, deeply meaningful to me, » she said, closing her eyes. 

For a while, she thought that meant following a vocation as a woman religious but it was different, she said, and she talked with her mother about it, « about what was possible for me. » That’s when, through discernment, she realized that her vocation instead was to « stand up for my gender in my church, because this isn’t right, we are all equal » and she found a different way to follow her calling.

« I was working with the Sisters of St. Francis, and I started to have friends tell me, ‘Angela, you would be such a good priest.’ And I kept thinking, that’s ridiculous. That’s just ridiculous, » she said. « My initial reaction was, ‘Why would anybody say that?’ Because in my head, my imagination was still stuck in this … well, a priest is a guy. »

But that’s not really what priesthood is, she added. « Priesthood isn’t a gender. It is a vocation. It is how we provide care for one another and create a sense of pastoral safety and theological reflection and growth and community. » 

Meyer started talking to her spiritual director and learned about a woman ordained in Indianapolis.

« I learned about Roman Catholic women priests. And then I learned that there were several actually very close to me. So, I started in conversation with them, » she said.

After spiritual direction and formation in the spirit of Vatican II, in 2019, she was ordained deacon at Holy Wisdom Monastery in Madison, Wisconsin, and was ordained a priest in 2021. Organizations such as Roman Catholic Womenpriests and the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests have helped her find community, even if they’re on the periphery of the church, she said. 

Officially, the church does not recognize the ordination of women to the diaconate, nor the priesthood. Roman Catholic Womenpriests acknowledges that on its website, which says, « Yes, we have challenged and broken the Church’s Canon Law 1024, an unjust law that discriminates against women. » They say they believe their ordinations are valid.

« There are those who will say we’re not really Catholic, » she told NCR. « But what we’re doing is we’re creating a space where people can come and be and participate in a way that they don’t feel their morality compromised, and that they can receive and participate co-equally in community care, pastoral care and sacramental care. » 

At one time, she said, it was « extremely hurtful » not to be recognized by a church she so loves.

« I carried a lot of hurt and a lot of pain because of that sense of rejection, of not being good enough, or not enough, not right enough, not whole enough, » she said. « Right now, I don’t personally feel pain, but I feel the pain and recognize the pain that so many other people carry like I did. And that deserves to be healed. Nobody should have to carry those feelings around. »

What she feels the most these days is joy at being part of Brownsburg Inclusive Catholic Community in Indiana.

« I have the just tremendous blessing to preside as priest … it feels like something has been just deeply liberated within me. And for me, it’s about connection, » she said. « It’s about facilitating spiritual wholeness and healing and co-support. I deeply believe in the part of Jesus’ prayer, ‘your kingdom come, your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven.’ I feel like that ‘on Earth’ piece is often so discarded when so much of Jesus’ ministry was about healing and being in relationship here and now. For me, the Gospel is so earthy and lived and relational and I feel like I get to do that in such an authentic way, to be supported by our community. And I love to preach. I love to preach! »

Late on Oct. 2, she sat by a column at St. Peter’s Square, praying with others that the synod  taking place in the buildings nearby will respond to women who feel excluded by a church they love.

« I know myself as a Catholic and I know that I won’t always be recognized as such by central authority figures, » she said. « It’s a complicated thing … but I also believe that evolution is always happening. And so long as we continue to show up, we can continue to have some influence. »