When the temperature outside is so high that even Texans joke about baking bread in their mailbox — as one Houston-area grandmother recently pretended to do, quickly going viral — it’s fair to say there’s perhaps more to the widespread and ongoing heat wave than typical summer doldrums.
More than 80 million Americans are currently under dangerous heat advisories. Temperatures in California’s Death Valley hover around 120 degrees Fahrenheit at midnight. Setting a city record, Phoenix as of July 31 had seen 31 straight days of heat over 110 F, the cause of 25 deaths, as confirmed by health officials July 22.
Spain, Greece and Italy have recorded all-time high temperatures. In several Middle Eastern countries, the heat index mid-July reached 152 F, considered almost at the limit for human survival.
Bizarrely enough, a 16th-century Catholic church — almost entirely submerged in a Chiapas, Mexico, reservoir since 1966 — is now a completely exposed tourist attraction due to lack of rain, high temperatures and falling water levels, Mexican officials say.
But how do thermometer-bursting digits relate to wider concerns about climate change, a warming earth, and the call to action of Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’ — and can individual Catholics make a difference?
« If you want proof of what the significance of the phenomenon is, » José Aguto told OSV News, « I would welcome everyone, if they have trust in the scientific evidence of a thermometer, to look at the temperatures that have been charted from at least the 1900s until now, and see the increase that has happened. » Aguto is executive director of Catholic Climate Covenant — a Washington-based consortium of 20 national organizations formed in 2006 with the help of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
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According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the earth’s temperature has risen by an average of 0.14 Fahrenheit, or 0.08 Celsius, « per decade since 1880, » or about 2 F in total. » However, NOAA observes that « the rate of warming since 1981 is more than twice as fast »: 0.32 F (0.18 C) per decade and « the 10 warmest years in the historical record have all occurred since 2010. »
« So this is our future unless we dramatically reduce the burning of fossil fuels, » Aguto cautioned. « We do not have time for political self-interest and financial self-interest to be the determining drivers of how we, as a civilization, are to chart our future. »
Those interests include the projected costs of transitioning to renewable energy models.
Nonetheless, the World Economic Forum voiced its concerns about the « need to transition to clean, reliable and climate-neutral energy sources » in an April 2023 article on the organization’s website. « It is simply not good enough to dig more coal or burn more natural gas, » it stated; « we must find a way to deliver energy security without endangering the planet and those that live on it. »
Swiss Reinsurance Company Ltd. — one of the world’s largest reinsurers — likewise issued a 2021 report titled, « The economics of climate change: no action not an option, » noting that natural disasters exacerbated by climate change could cost the U.S. economy nearly $2 trillion a year by 2050, and shrink the global economy 10% by the same date.
Looking to future generations, Aguto reflected, « If we as Catholics believe in the fundamental life and dignity of every human person, we then have an obligation to protect the life and dignity of every human person — and that includes assuring a stable, thriving earth for them. »
Pope Francis referenced the recent heat headlines during his July 23 Sunday Angelus message in Rome, while making a global plea.
« I renew my appeal to world leaders to do something more concrete to limit polluting emissions, » he said. « It is an urgent challenge, it cannot be postponed, and it concerns everyone. Let us protect our common home. »
The pope’s choice of words reflects the title of his 2015 encyclical, « Laudato Si’, On Care for Our Common Home, » in which he said the « climate is a common good, belonging to all and meant for all. »
The Associated Press, reporting data from an October 2022 Global Carbon Project study, whose figures are seconded by the International Energy Agency — indicates « the top three most polluting places on Earth are responsible for 53% of all carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions released into the atmosphere for more than 60 years. » They are the United States (21.5%); China (16.5%); and the European Union (15%).
As NASA notes, « Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere warms the planet, causing climate change. Human activities have raised the atmosphere’s carbon dioxide content by 50% in less than 200 years. »
Steven Coleman, a retired mechanical engineer living in Marshall, Wisconsin, has been advocating for the climate since before the release of Laudato Si’ and penned a widely used guidebook, « A Catholic Response to Global Warming. » A leader of the Catholic Action Team for the Citizens’ Climate Lobby and the Care for Creation Team at Madison’s St. Dennis Catholic Parish, Coleman admitted that at the parish level, « initially, it was difficult to have that conversation — because you didn’t know how divisive it was going to be with people. » But he has « seen a significant change in that over eight years. »
According to a February 2023 Pew Research Center study, 57% of Catholics say global climate change is « an extremely or very serious problem. »
When challenged that global warming can’t be regarded as critical since the earth’s temperature has only risen a couple of degrees in the last approximately 140 years, Coleman asks listeners to contemplate a biological equivalent: « That doesn’t seem like much — but if you consider it like the human body, if your temperature goes up a couple of degrees, you have a fever, » said Coleman. « Similarly in our climate, if the average global temperature goes up a couple of degrees, that’s a big deal also — because it’s a very finely-tuned system. »
While both Coleman and Aguto told OSV News that small, individual efforts — carpooling, recycling, water conservation, limiting use of plastics, promoting energy efficiency with adjusted thermostats — are important, discussion is at the top of their climate engagement lists.
« Have the courage to talk about it, » Coleman advised, « even though there are some people that are going to find it politically divisive, the reality is that we’ve got this global heat and people are suffering and dying because of it. So talk about it. Second, talk to your legislators. Make sure they understand that this is important to you. … It does make a difference. »
Among the top-10 volumes on The New York Times Hardcover Nonfiction bestseller list is The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet by Jeff Goodell.
« I wrote this book almost as a survival guide to the 21st century, » Goodell told OSV News. « I want to help educate people about the risk of heat, and make it personal — and that’s why the title is so personal. »
Goodell is nonetheless realistic.
« The blunt truth is there’s never going to be a universal consensus on this — that’s just not going to happen, » he said. « But what we need is a stronger political consensus to take action; a stronger sense of urgency among the people who do understand this … and the typical person who walks into a bookstore and thinks that this is not their problem. »
And yet it is potentially their problem — because as Goodell explained, « compared to other climate and weather impacts, heat kills by far more people than any other event. »
« People don’t understand the risk, » he said. « They don’t understand what to do when it’s hot; we have poor messaging about it. There’s little infrastructure built specifically for heat. We’ve not understood the immediate threat that heat poses to us. »
Goodell fears a population that will « just adapt to the fact that tens of thousands of people die every summer because of extreme heat, and that becomes part of how we think the world works, » he said. « We’ll just accept that this extreme climate that we’re moving into is the way things are — and not understand that this is the world that we created, and we still have a lot of control over what it looks like. »
The organization that oversees the Catholic Church’s English-language translations for the Mass and other liturgies of the Roman Rite has a new leader as of Nov. 1.
The bishops of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy have appointed Fr. Andrew Menke as ICEL’s executive director for a five-year term.
The decision, approved at the ICEL bishops’ July 17-21 meeting in Washington, was announced July 21.
Menke is succeeding Msgr. Andrew Wadsworth, who has held the post since 2009. Wadsworth remains a consultant to ICEL as well as director of the St. Gregory Institute for the Study of Liturgical Latin, a collaborative project between ICEL and the department of Greek and Latin at The Catholic University of America in Washington.
A priest of the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska, Menke was the former executive director of the Secretariat of Divine Worship at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, or USCCB, from 2017 until July 1. He holds both a licentiate and doctorate in sacred liturgy from the Pontifical Liturgical Institute at Sant’Anselmo in Rome. From 2010-2015, he was an official for the Vatican’s Congregation (now Dicastery) for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
Fr. Dennis Gill, director of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s Office for Divine Worship, told OSV News in an email he was « very happy » about Menke’s appointment, pointing to Menke’s « knowledge, experience and pastoral sense. »
ICEL ensures that each of the Latin liturgical books, along with individual liturgical texts, are translated into English according to the Holy See’s directives. The commission was formed in Rome in 1963 by bishops from English-speaking countries attending the Second Vatican Council.
In its constitution on the sacred liturgy, « Sacrosanctum Concilium, » the council allowed for the celebration of Mass in the vernacular, while specifying that translations from Latin for liturgical use must be authorized by « competent territorial bodies of bishops » that have been legitimately established.
ICEL is comprised of member representatives of 11 bishops’ conferences hailing from Australia, Canada, England and Wales, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Scotland, Southern Africa and the U.S. One bishop is elected by each of the respective conferences to serve on ICEL.
Archbishop Leonard T. Blair of Hartford, Connecticut, serves as the USCCB’s ICEL representative.
In 2003, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments formally established ICEL as a mixed commission in accordance with « Liturgiam Authenticam, » the 2001 Vatican instruction on the use of the vernacular in the liturgy.
While it does not publish liturgical texts, ICEL translations are made available to member bishops’ conferences who authorize publication.
The issue of translations and their authorized use received renewed attention during the COVID-19 pandemic, when parishes shifted to livestreamed liturgies and the use of digital worship aids.
Except for the Scriptural readings, the texts of the Mass in English are copyrighted by ICEL, which also charges royalty fees to compensate scholars and develop liturgical materials.
While a parish’s purchase of lectionaries and missalettes typically covers permissions requirements, the shift to online and recorded liturgies raised previously unconsidered issues regarding permissions, copyright and reprints of worship aids.
In a May 2020 interview with CatholicPhilly.com, Wadsworth said ICEL would need to consider such issues in the coming years, as members « never thought of situations where people would need access (to worship aids) outside of church. »
(Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time-Year A; This homily was given on July 30, 2023 at Saint Augustine Church in Providence, Rhode Island; See Matthew 13:44-52)
« At least you got pregnant! What a blessing! »
As I digested these words from a well-meaning acquaintance, I wanted to spit them out immediately. I had just suffered a miscarriage, and in the midst of this deep, personal tragedy, I was being directed to consider the pregnancy, and the subsequent death of my child, as something good from God. At that moment, in the throes of grief, the thought made me shudder.
I certainly could not see my situation as a blessing or a gift in that moment. My child had died, my body was broken, and the future I’d imagined with my husband and my child had been erased. I desperately wanted the person in front of me to share in my overwhelming sadness, but instead I felt unseen — and like I had to put on a happy face.
At the time of my loss, I was working at a Jesuit retreat center, run by the order of priests founded by St. Ignatius Loyola, so I was familiar with Ignatius’ most famous work, The Spiritual Exercises, and the practical path of prayer and discernment he created known as Ignatian spirituality. St. Ignatius, whose feast day is celebrated July 31, experienced a powerful conversion after a cannonball hit him during battle. As he recovered, he learned to pay attention to God at work in his life. The very practical nature of noticing and responding to God within normal life and within the parts of life that weren’t expected — like being struck down by a cannonball or hearing that your baby has no heartbeat — had appealed to me.
I was also familiar with cura personalis, an Ignatian term that means « care for the whole person, » and it spoke to me deeply. I longed for all that I was to be held by God without me holding anything back. I longed for the people God put in my path to see my whole self — and for me to see their whole selves. Ignatian spirituality gave me the words and path to make that a reality.
The 500-year-old wisdom of the Spiritual Exercises starts with a prayer known as the « First Principle and Foundation. » In laying out God’s vision and purpose for our life, St. Ignatius begins with God’s love for us and our response to that love. In the modern translation by Jesuit Fr. David L. Fleming it begins
The goal of our life is to live with God forever. God, who loves us, gave us life. Our own response of love allows God’s life to flow into us without limit.
This sentiment is echoed in the opening sentence of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: In a « plan of sheer goodness » God created us to share in God’s blessings. Starting with God’s goodness and love resonated with me, but also felt more intellectual than personal — especially after losing my child.
Sensing that human tendency to ask « How does this affect me? » St Ignatius goes on to say:
In everyday life, then, we must hold ourselves in balance before all of these created gifts … We should not fix our desires on health or sickness, wealth or poverty, success or failure, a long life or a short one. For everything has the potential of calling forth in us a deeper response to our life in God.
This is the part of the First Principle and Foundation where I heard a record scratching in my head. I certainly desired health instead of sickness, just as I deeply desired that my child had lived instead of died. Unfortunately, we cannot pretend that sickness, death, poverty or failure do not exist.
St. Ignatius is not asking us to ignore the reality of tragic events for the sake of focusing on only the good and happy things of this world, but rather his writing challenges us to bring both the joy and the tragedies to God. Ignatius invites us to trust that God is in all of it, caring about our entire reality and cura personalis, our whole selves.
I do not need to rejoice in every event of this life, but I can trust that I am not alone and God is with me in whatever I endure. During the intense grief of my miscarriage, God loved me fiercely and walked with me closely. And God walks with me still now as grief continues to rear its head. God is with each of us, walking with us no matter what we are facing in life. There will be tragedy, crisis and sin, but also goodness, beauty and abundance — and God will be in all of it. « Everything has potential of calling forth in us a deeper response to our life in God, » Ignatius promises us.
Though it took time and kindness with myself to see it, there was blessing in my miscarriage. Not in the tragedy itself, but in how God showed up in it, reminding me in small and big ways that I was loved and not alone. But I am glad God didn’t require me to instantly see my loss as a blessing and gift. God cared for my pain while gently inviting me to see blessings that were arising from this devastating loss.
The depth of my heartache was matched by the depth of God’s love and healing. Though my heart broke, it also broke open, increasing my capacity to be fully present with others in their pain. God’s care and compassion for me invites me to offer the same care and compassion to others in their pain.
In my time of trial, God gave me new eyes to see complications and complexity without turning away, pretending it’s less than it is, or trying to find a quick fix to solve it. God’s accompaniment of me in my own suffering invites me to accompany others in theirs. It is through my broken-open, compassionate heart that God called me to use these gifts in service to God and others.
In the decade since my loss, God has invited me to walk with dozens of others who have lost a child. I have been the person someone turns to when the world as they knew it has stopped. I have talked softly with them through what’s next and reminded them that God sees their pain and is with them in it. I would not be able to offer others this blessing had I not experienced God’s care for me in my own time of loss.
The path of Ignatian Spirituality invites me to live and share all my life with God, trusting that God cares for my whole being and all that I am and having the privilege of sharing that truth with others as well. Because, it turns out, St. Ignatius was right: « Everything has the potential of calling forth in us a deeper response to our life in God. »
