On a recent sweltering Saturday typical of April in Arizona, around 100 people from across the state gathered at the pastoral center of the Phoenix Diocese for a day of prayer and contemplation on the environment.
The diocese’s second Creation Summit opened with a reflection by Phoenix Auxiliary Bishop Peter Bui, with the rest of the day divided around three topics: migration and creation; local steps to address poverty and creation; and action planning, where Catholic parishioners and people of other faiths worked to develop localized blueprints for environmental initiatives.
“[We] brought them together to be in community and to journey together for the day and then they were all sent out having an opportunity to form an action plan with their communities,” said Abigail Poole, the diocese’s Catholic social teaching coordinator.
The Phoenix Diocese too is developing a plan of its own, as one of 19 dioceses taking part in an inaugural national training program to compose ecological action plans inspired by Pope Francis’ 2015 social encyclical, “Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home.”
The Laudato Si’ Leadership Training program is a collaboration between the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Diocese of Lexington, Kentucky. Despite its size and limited resources, the Lexington Diocese has emerged as a leader in transforming church teachings on the environment into ambitious actions to address climate change and other socio-ecological issues in the region.
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