Catholic People's Weeks on Peace and Laudato Si'

CPW Group

Catholic People's Weeks (CPW) will be running nine events in 2016. The first two - in February and March - still have a few places available. CPW's main aim is to provide continuing formation in the Catholic faith. However, non-Catholic people are very welcome who are interested in, or in sympathy with, the Catholic tradition. Every event offers a chance, in the company of friendly fellow-seekers, to refresh our understanding of what it means to be a Catholic Christian today.

Lord, make me a means of your peace
26-28 February 2016
At Boar's Hill Carmelite Priory, Oxford

What can we do to hear the cry of the poor and of the Earth, as promoted by Laudato Si'? What can we do to try and abolish war? How can we be peacemakers, which includes nurturing peace in our own lives?

Pope Francis has levelled harsh words at those who manage or benefit from the systems that perpetuate poverty, wreak havoc on the planet, and wage war. He repeatedly links war and preparations for war to poverty, climate change and ecological devastation. Catholic peace organisation Pax Christi believes that for too long our society has accepted a paradigm that justifies enormous loss of human life and widespread destruction of the planet in pursuit of an elusive peace and false security.

Speakers: Fr Martin Poulsom SDB (Head of Theology at Heythrop College and Chair of the LiveSimply coordinating group); Pat Gaffney (General Secretary of Pax Christi UK); and Ellen Teague (Columban Justice, Peace and Ecology Team).

Link: www.catholicpeoplesweeks.org.uk/BoarsHill.php

And:

Celebrating Laudato Si'
11-13 March 2016
at Hyning Monastery in North Lancashire.

After a wait of many years at last the church has produced a comprehensive encyclical on the environment. Given the risks facing the world today, Laudato Si' is probably the most important document to emerge from Rome since Vatican II. It is certainly the most readable and for many the most inspiring. This document makes two distinctive contributions to the task ahead. First in the constant references to poverty - the mindset that disregards damage to the environment also ignores the plight of the poor. Second is the poetic nature of the treatment; while drawing on Scripture and the Franciscan tradition, it offers humanity a joyful, life-giving, universal wisdom.

The many riches of Laudato Si' will be explored with the help of Paul Bodenham, Chair of Green Christian, and Nicholas Postlethwaite, a priest from Toxteth. The chair and organiser are Mike and Mary Monaghan.

Link: www.catholicpeoplesweeks.org.uk/HyningSpring.php

Details of other events at:
www.catholicpeoplesweeks.org.uk/eventdetails.php