Could Sr Dorothy Stang be a patron of the environment encyclical?

Jun 14th, 2015

When Laudato Si, Pope Francis' encyclical letter on the environment, appears on June 18, it will seem obvious to most people who the patron saint of the document is: St Francis of Assisi, the great 12t -13th century lover of all creation, whose famed 'Canticle of the Sun' gives the text its title - John L Allen Jr writes in Crux.

On Thursday, however, Francis provided an indirect clue that there's another strong candidate as the patron, someone much closer in time though not yet formally declared a saint: Sister Dorothy Stang, an American missionary nun assassinated in Brazil in 2005 for defending the Amazon rainforest and the rights of poor farmers.

Sister Stang is known today as the 'Martyr of the Amazon' and the cause for which she laid down her life seems set to form a central component of Francis' environmental agenda.

Read John Allen's article here: www.cruxnow.com/church/2015/06/11/martyred-american-nun-could-be-the-patron-saint-of-the-popes-eco-encyclical/

Read more about Sr Dorothy and watch a short film about her on the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur here: www.sndohio.org/sister-dorothy/Expanded-Story.cfm

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