Lenten Environmental Calendar
A New Twist on the Lenten Fast: Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
As the Lenten season arrives, the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change has provided Catholics, schools and organizations with more tools and resources for its annual Catholic Climate Covenant. And our parish Green Committee has capitalized on that!
The Coalition was formed three and a half years ago to help implement the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) 2001 initiative "Global Climate Change: A Plea for Dialogue, Prudence and the Common Good." Launched last year, the Covenant revolves around the St. Francis Pledge, which correlates five key actions - pray, learn, assess, act and advocate - to the issues of the environment and poverty.
To help fulfill those obligations, the Archdiocese of Washington's Environmental Outreach Committee has created a particularly useful new tool: a calendar that lists 40 carbon-fasting measures individuals can take to reduce their carbon footprint.
As Pope Benedict XVI has reminded us, it is more urgent than ever to "re-create a strong alliance between man and the earth," and the effects of climate change are disproportionately affecting the poor.
The calendar is "another way to care for creation and aid the poor," said Catholic Climate Covenant Executive Director Daniel Misleh. [In addition,] it's challenging, asks for sacrifices and to be more mindful of patterns of consumption. "It's a new twist on Lent."
View the customized St. Thomas Aquinas Lenten Environmental Calendar.
Read more about the fast and the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change here.
Contact Steve Pehanich at spehanich@cacatholic.org for more information.