Healthy Earth Team

Our insistence that each human being is an image of God should not make us overlook the fact that each creature has its own purpose. None is superfluous. The entire material universe speaks of God’s love, his boundless affection for us. Soil, water, mountains: everything is, as it were, a caress of God. (Laudato Si’, Para. 84)

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.

Successes over their first three years include: Cincinnati’s first National Drive Electric Week event; the launch of Terracycle recycling of cosmetics and toiletries (full list available here) within the parish; as well as the recycling of medicine bottles; an annual e-recycling collection; Meatless Meetups for the community; Earthscursions that bring the community together through exploration of nature; and the annual inclusion in the liturgy of ecological themes at both Earth Day in April and the Parish Picnic near the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi in October. Most significantly, the Team has been involved in the creation of Fresh is Better: Evanston Community Gardens Project, working with our Evanston neighbors to bring healthy, local and organic produce to the community. More about the project can be found here.

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. We meet monthly, on the fourth Monday of the month at 6 PM in the Alumni Center.

For more information or to join, contact our Director of Social Mission, Tim Severyn at severynte@xavier.edu

RESOURCES

Our Healthy Earth Team has compiled a list of resources for further education and action.

Laudato Si' Week Parishioner Gallery - 2020