Begun in 2015, though carrying on the work of a previous Green Team active from 2008-2012, the Healthy Earth Team is our parish response to Pope's Francis' clarion call to ecological conversion issued in his encyclical Laudato Si': On Care for Our Common Home.
Our Mission: The Healthy Earth Team inspires our parish through educational initiatives to connect the tenets of our Catholic faith and the need for action in protecting our common home from ecological exploitation and injustice.
The Team has organized their work into two main components: Climate Change and Food Justice. As a guiding framework, the Team has adopted the five pillars of the Catholic Climate Covenant's St. Francis Pledge: Pray, Learn, Assess, Act and Advocate (www.catholicclimatecovenant.org) Successes over their first year include: Cincinnati’s first National Drive Electric Week event; launch of Terracycle within the parish; an annual e-recycling collection; Meatless Meetups for the community; the launch of a Bellarmine Community Garden; and participation in the Fresh Is Better: Evanston Community Gardens effort with our neighbors.
The Team welcomes new members and new ideas for how to help our community become even more centered on the concerns of our excluded neighbor and the excluded earth.
For more information or to join, contact our Director of Social Mission, Tim Severyn at: severynte@xavier.edu
