For the first time, the Society of St Vincent de Paul has included a commitment to caring for the environment as an integral part of its strategic plan for the next five years.

Caring for the planet is an essential part of living the Gospel today, said John Kennedy-Good, leader of the society’s social justice outreach.

“Vincentians are committed to living sustainably and responding to the challenges outlined in Pope Francis’s encyclical, Laudato Si’, On Care for Our Common Home. In the words of the Pope: ‘Living our vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or secondary aspect of our Christian experience.’”

Mr Kennedy-Good said the society will be asking young Vinnies to take the lead in developing a strategy for practical action in living sustainably and caring for the environment. Conference
members of the society will be invited to engage with that strategy.

“We will be encouraging all conference members to reflect on the Pope’s message in Laudato Si’ and to discuss ways they can respond as conferences and as individuals.” Mr Kennedy-Good said the society is well-placed to be an authentic voice advocating against wastefulness in New Zealand’s consumerist society.

“We are striving to be a leader in recycling second-hand goods through our extensive network of shops. We also want to reduce waste by improving sorting methods, expanding recycling opportunities and educating donors.”

Respect for the environment sits alongside respect for people in the society’s thinking, Mr Kennedy-Good said.

“We have to find the commitment and courage to act in this area, just as we do to be close to those who are vulnerable and lonely. We must move beyond words and take action to reduce our carbon

footprint and live sustainably. “Pope Francis puts it very powerfully: ‘The earth itself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor’.

“It is not an option to sit on the sidelines and do nothing while the overwhelming scientific consensus is that humankind is having a devastating impact on the environment in which we live.”

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Groups of young Tongans, from Catholic parishes and secondary schools in Auckland and in Hamilton, were joined by family members in picking up rubbish in parks at 26 locations on November 30.

Altogether, between 800 and 1000 people were estimated to have taken part in the event, said Kuilei Pulotu, one of the organisers.

She was among those who helped fill the back of a small truck with rubbish bags at the Rongomai Rd Reserve in Otara. Auckland Council staff were at some of the parks and took the rubbish away.

Ms Pulotu was surprised, not only at the amount collected in just over an hour, but at what had been picked up. Items collected at the Rongomai Rd Reserve included a mattress, metal, bean bags, TVs and some dumped rubbish bags. While the park itself looked pristine and clean from the road, some fringe areas furthest from the street were another story.

“Seeing this rubbish today, it is just ridiculous to see that we are part of this,” said Mrs Pulotu, who teaches at St Pius X Catholic School in Glen Innes.   

The clean-up was inspired by the teachings of Laudato Si’. The Tongan Catholic chaplains, Fr Lino Folaumoeloa and Fr Soane Vahe, and members of their community, including young people, had reflected on the encyclical.   

“Bishop Pat [Dunn] has also talked about Laudato Si’ this year – so our chaplains – Fr Lino and Fr Soane – had thought of us going out and looking after our world by starting from something simple, like cleaning up. And for the community to see that this is us. So that is why we chose somewhere close to where we live, because this is our rubbish and this is our world to look after,” Ms Pulotu said.

Tongan Catholics turned out in large numbers to do their bit.

“They all turned up – grandparents, aunties, uncles, parents, teachers. So it is a whole holistic family programme – even though it is for the kids to see, but it is also us, as parents and grandparents,” Ms Pulotu said.

One of the young people who picked up rubbish was Otara local Taufa Taulanga, who said “it was good and a little bit of fun”.

When pressed to explain the “fun” aspect further, the 13-year-old said it was “leading the kids in picking up the rubbish”.

Taufa felt the job was worthwhile and it gave him pride in his neighbourhood. But he said that after working in the hot sun, he was looking forward to a drink.

Ms Pulotu said the God had been with the community in many ways, not least in terms of the “very beautiful” weather on the day.

The clean-up started with prayers on November 30, but, in fact, the Tongan Catholic community had been praying for this event for a year, Ms Pulotu said.

Otara resident Ika Mafi said the clean-up was “great, good”.

“I am proud of my Sunday School, because I am part of this Sunday School from Otara, St John the Evangelist . . .  I am so proud of what they did today – it is a great job. A wonderful day for the kids too,” she said.

Setting an example for children – and for adults too – was a strong motivation for many at the event, several people told NZ Catholic.

Malia Fononga from Otara described the clean-up as “a lesson in respect – to treat others as [you] like to treat yourself. We have to do that”.

She thanked Ms Pulotu and Frs Vahe and Folaumoeloa for their various contributions in seeing the clean-up come to fruition.

Ms Pulotu said the clean-up is not the only Laudato Si’-inspired action for the Tongan Catholic community. In Auckland, “we have made an agreement, a policy, that there [are] no more fizzy drinks and [we] try to reduce using plastics. So we will try to go back and motivate people to do that”, she said.

In the New Year, Auckland Council will work with these Tongan Catholic young people in a project to plant trees.

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It may well have started with an ungraceful fall at the local supermarket but the fallout has certainly produced some very “grace full” moments since then.echo $variable;

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Sr Gail Worcelo used Laudato Si’ as a springboard to explore the environmental and cosmological concepts of Teilhard de Chardin, Thomas Berry and other Christian thinkers on our relationship to the earth and the “universe story”.

Sr Worcelo from Green Mountain Monastery in Vermont, United States, visited New Zealand in March to give a series of workshops “In the spirit of Laudato Si’”, at the invitation of Nga Whaea Atawhai o Aotearoa – Sisters of Mercy.

She co-founded Green Mountain Monastery as a monastic community dedicated to the healing of the earth with Thomas Berry (1914-2009): Passionist priest, cultural historian and ‘earth scholar’. The Wellington event with 50 other people.

Sr Worcelo explored the environmental and cosmological concepts in an experiential way with light body exercises to free up energy, and small group sharing. Consequently, a written account of the workshop is not going to give a full flavour of the event, but perhaps a reference to one of the poems she used will help. Quoting from Mary Oliver: “So come to the pond or the river of your imagination, or the harbour of your longing, Put your lips to the world and live your life”, she encouraged us to “put our lips to the world”.

Sr Worcelo noted that Laudato Si’ — Pope Francis’ ground-breaking 2015 encyclical on ecology — was “bookended” by St Francis of Assisi at the beginning and Jesuit geologist-priest Teilhard de Chardin at the end — in footnotes related to Pope Francis’ reference that the ultimate destiny of the universe is in the fullness of God, through the risen Christ.

Sr Worcelo noted that these two pioneers in our relationship with nature came from two quite different world views. The medieval world of St Francis saw the earth at the centre of the universe while the “evolutionary cosmology” of Teilhard de Chardin’s time sees the universe, including humanity, as continually unfolding.

Sr Worcelo explored de Chardin’s concepts of emergence and convergence. Emergence is the unfolding of the cosmos, while convergence is about “the deepening of being in a world of becoming”. De Chardin saw constant change in nature, and that the world and we with it are “always moving”. Even Christianity is an “emerging tradition”; it hasn’t remained static. However, Sr Worcelo said this “emergence” does not happen by reading a book — it’s something we need to participate it.

Although Fr Thomas Berry was not mentioned in Laudato Si’, Sr Worcelo considered that his cosmological thought was implicit through much of the encyclical. She used the workshop to expound on his understanding of what it means to live as a human being in our day and age.

Berry coined the term “Ecozoic”, which refers to a time when humans would treat the planet like a “house of life” — a concept echoed in Pope Francis referring to our earth as “our common home”.

Berry said to live in the Ecozoic healthily, we need to shift our thinking, and posited the principles to guide, some of which find echoes in Laudato Si’:

• The Earth is a communion of subjects, not a collection of objects.

• It is a one-time endowment, subject to an irreversible pattern.

• New ethical principles must emerge in the Ecozoic, to counter biocide and geocide — the killing off of other creatures, and the life-giving properties of the earth.

• All beings have rights: the right to be, the right to habitat, and right to fulfil its role in the great community of existence.

• According to Thomas Berry, “If you’re not uncomfortable, you’re probably not evolving”. Sr Worcelo proposed that human understanding of our relationship with the environment has passed through and evolved through five phases, with each phase caught up and continuing through the more recent phases, like an ever-upward and expanding spiral. She believed each of these five strains or phases is found in Laudato Si’:

• Animate or indigenous spirituality: expresses connectivity to the earth and spirits of nature.

• Custodial model, such as found in Benedictine spirituality, where our work with the earth is one caring for the earth.

• Fraternal model — as expressed by St Francis preaching to the birds.

• Sensual — as expressed by St Hildegard of Bingen who spoke of touching, tasting and feeling creation through our senses.

• Cosmological — relational, which covers our relationship with God, with each other, and with all other creatures with which we share this planet.

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