Liverpool Laudato Si' Day with Columban missionaries

Organising teams with Archbishop McMahon

Around 140 people attended a 'Faith and Creation' day at Liverpool's LACE Centre on Saturday, organised by Columban missionaries and Liverpool Archdiocese Justice and Peace Commission. They represented more than 30 parishes of the Liverpool Archdiocese, and some in Shrewsbury, Lancaster and Wrexham. Other groups present included the Liverpool University Chaplaincy, CAFOD, Pax Christi, Pauline Media, Traidcraft, and Faiths for Change.

The day explored responses to Pope Francis's encyclical Laudato Si', and the hymn of the same name was sung during the day's Mass, where the chief celebrant was Archbishop Malcolm McMahon of Liverpool. Music was led by Liverpool born hymn writer Mike Anderson, with his music group from Our Lady of Good Help, Wavertree.

The Columban team leading the day included four priests, two Filipina lay missionaries, two members of the Columban JPIC (Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation) team and office staff from the Columban house at Solihull. The day was chaired by Columban Education worker James Trewby. Columban Fathers Jim Fleming and Tom Ryan led prayers at the beginning and end of the day, thanking the parishes in Liverpool for their warm welcome to Columban missionaries visiting for mission appeals during 2015.

With the encyclical Laudato Si' Pope Francis has brought the Catholic Church to the forefront of the ecology movement, according to speaker Ellen Teague of the Columban JPIC team. Pope Francis has added his extraordinary moral leadership to the fight against climate change, she said, quoting Pope Francis that, "the climate is a common good" and "there is an urgent need to develop policies so that, in the next few years, the emission of carbon dioxide and other highly polluting gases can be drastically reduced, for example, substituting for fossil fuels and developing sources of renewable energy". She reported that Columban eco-theologian Sean McDonagh was a consultant to Laudato Si' and that the Columban missionaries support Pope Francis when he says that, "living our vocation to be protectors of God's handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or a secondary aspect of our Christian experience".

In his sermon during Mass Archbishop McMahon underlined concerns in Laudato Si' about the commodification of natural resources, particularly water. Laudato Si' suggests that, "caring for ecosystems demands far-sightedness, since no one looking for quick and easy profit is truly interested in their preservation". The Church is involved internationally in tackling social and environmental crises. Strategies for a solution demand an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature.

Dominican John O'Connor spoke to the section of the encyclical on 'The Gospel of Creation', pointing to scriptural references warning about the threat to human wellbeing if justice, peace and the natural rhythms of Planet Earth are ignored. Absolute domination of other creatures and blind plunder of natural resources is condemned in Laudato Si'. The Church is open to dialogue with any groups in the international community working on environmental sustainability, said Fr O'Connor. He also urged the audience to reflect on their personal lifestyles and calculate their own carbon footprints, considering reducing flying, meat consumption and energy use in the home.

There was group work using the Columban Laudato Si' study programme of six meetings. Action ideas emerging from that were picked out by Steve Atherton of Liverpool Archdiocese Justice and Peace Commission. Participants' commitments ranged from political action, such as lobbying the present UK government not to reduce subsidies to solar and wind energy, to bringing back saying grace before meals in the home to appreciate the source of our water and food. There was a commitment to bring the study programme to parishes to raise awareness of the challenges in Laudato Si' and to lobby for serious action to tackle climate change at the Paris UN Climate talks, which begin in late November.