Digital Cleanup                                               Traduction française ci-dessous                              This Blog is inspired by Parami University's initiative to address the emerging issue of digital waste and its effect of the global environment. Parami's online connection with students in and from Myanmar encourages refugee youth to develop a sensitivity to ecological issues. Why Digital Cleanup? While pollution is commonly associated with visible factors like industrial em...

War and the Environment – an online Course                Le monde au-delà de la guerre   voir ci-dessous This course is about war and the environment. It is designed for anyone interested in or working on anti-war or climate change issues, and anyone who wishes to know more about peace and the environment. To meet the needs of those just described, the course focusses on how war and war preparation are major contributors to the climate change crisis. The course also involves a focus on how natural resources play a role in many of the armed conflicts worldwide, and how wars divert resources from meeting the human and environmental needs ...

The Oceania Marist Project of Tutu Rural Training Centre (TRTC), Taveuni, Fiji, recently concluded its annual staff seminar on high note, marking the beginning of a transformative journey for six new staff members. The seminar provided an opportunity for deep reflection, learning and alignment with TRTC's vision* and mission. * The week began with a three-day retreat focused on Marist Spirituality, allowing new and existing staff to immerse themselves in the foundational values of humility, simplicity and service. This was followed by two days of formation, emphasizing the significance of enfleshing TRTC's vision and Mission in daily operations and community engagements. A Highlight of the s...

The theme of this Jubilee Year is: "Hope does not disappoint". Fr Ted Keating SM - USA - writes the Introduction for us on the Project of Caritas International inviting us to Sign the Petition for unjust Debt Cancellation.       Traduction française ci-dessous Introduction We are happy to see that the Jubilee Year called forth by Pope Francis includes significant attention to the debt crisis in our contemporary global world. It is being shared here by Caritas and then by Pax Christi International with an invitation to other groups that are interested. Three strategic goals are listed by Caritas below. An article in The New York Times last month reported that more than 17 ...

SMNZ JPIE Hui November, Pukekaraka 2024 Recently a small group of Marists gathered at Pukekaraka marae, Ōtaki, Aotearoa/New Zealand. We are the Justice, Peace and Integral Ecology group for the SMNZ Province. We share a common concern for all the "wicked problems" that exist in our world today ie., war, inequality, the climate crisis, the biodiversity crisis, pollution, populist-authoritarian leaders, racism, colonization, sexism, ageism, housing, drug abuse etc. We are an ordinary bunch of Kiwi men with many years of ministry in various fields, overseas and here in Aotearoa. We reflected, prayed and ate together at Pukekaraka, our Marist Marian Shrine. We reflected on this period that many ...

Title: Cultivating Sustainability: A Visit to Bishop O'Dowd Catholic School In January, I traveled with my colleague, Mike Burns, to explore the thriving culture of sustainability at Bishop O'Dowd Catholic School in Oakland, CA. With our President of Marist School Atlanta, J.D. Childs, having come from Bishop O'Dowd and spoken highly of their sustainability initiatives, we sought to learn how they have built an ingrained culture of sustainability. Our first stop was the Bishop O'Dowd Center for Environmental Studies, a LEED Platinum Certified Building that serves as the epicenter of their environmental science and engineering program. The seamless integration of indoor and outdoor spaces was...

Changing How Economy Works                                                                Traduction française - voir ci-dessous Capitalist economy, especially in its neoliberal, financial version, is ecologically and socially unsustainable, and it is the main driver of the poly-crisis we are today experiencing. Therefore, we need to change how the economy works. This will take a social transformation, that is, a systemic change that transforms both socio- economic structures and the worldview that underpins them. Having understood th...

Economic Justice as a Priority for the Global South     Bro. Alberto Parise MCCJ     Rome, 23rd January 2024 La justice économique, une priorité pour le Sud            voir ci-dessous pour la traduction  The State of the World's Economy The recently published UN report on the World Economic Situation and Prospects 2023, presented at the World Economic Forum in Davos, portrays that we are in the middle of a "polycrisis". In fact, the report states that a series of severe and mutually reinforcing shocks struck the world economy in 2022: a. the impacts of the COVID‐19 pandemic still reverberating worldwide,b. the war in Ukraine (a...

On-line Course on Integral Ecology From Laudato Si' to Laudate Deum An Initiative of the Alliance for the Care of Our Common Home (Pontifical Universities & Atheneums of Rome) In 2015 Pope Francis gifted us Laudato Si', the landmark encyclical letter on the care for our common home, in which he invited all people of good will to "a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet" (LS, 14). However, as Pope Francis recognizes in Laudate Deum, the apostolic exhortation published on 4th October 2023 - on the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, patron of ecology, "our responses have not been adequate" and "the world in which we live is collapsing and may be nearing the b...

A Broader View of the Impacts of Climate Change on the World's Poor by Ted Keating, SM                                                                                                 Traduction française - voir ci-dessous When our Editorial Committee met to plan this issue of Today's Marists, we were embedded in the tragic news of a world on fire (western part of the United States, Canada, Greece, along with several other nations); massive, deadly flo...

COP28 is the first COP to have a Faith Pavilion, found at  https://faithatcop28.com/ La COP28 est la première COP à disposer d'un pavillon de la foi à  https://faithatcop28.com/ GLOBAL FAITH LEADERS UNITE TO DECLARE SUPPORT      Traduction française - voir ci-dessous – 28 high-level faith leaders from over 19 faiths and denominations unite to sign a statement seeking urgent climate action ahead of COP28. – The document, signed at the Global Faith Leaders' Summit on 6/7 November in Abu Dhabi, shows commitment from faith groups across the world to take swift and decisive action to address the climate emergency. – At COP28, the first-ever Faith Pavilion will b...

Fr Francois Grossin sm, New Caledonia, sent this recent news:         Traduction française : voir ci-dessous Australia offers climate asylum to Tuvalu's citizens On 9 November 2021, Tuvalu's Minister of Foreign Affairs sent a video to be broadcast at a UN climate summit. In the clip, Simon Kofe was found with water up to his thighs, begging for help as a photographer of APF captured the event on film. Canberra has announced that it will offer residents of Tuvalu, an archipelago particularly threatened by rising sea levels, "special" rights to settle and work in Australia, in a treaty made public by the two countries on Friday 10th November. "We believe that the peopl...

Major Livestock Producing Countries Commit to Mitigate Methane in Agriculture  - article from the Global Methane Hub:   https://www.globalmethanehub.org/ Les pays d'élevage les plus importants s'engagent à limiter les émissions de méthane dans l'agriculture                                           - voir traduction ci-dessous Cover Photo: Leaders from 20 countries, representing 50% of agricultural methane emissions at the First Ministerial Meeting on Lower Emission Food Systems, Santiago, Chile, April 2023. [Photo de couveture] Les responsables de 20 pa...

This week's post was sent to us by Fr Francois Grossin SM, New Caledonia, from NZ Catholic, 6th March 2023. It is an address from Cardinal Soane Patita Paini Mafi who is the first ever cardinal from Tonga and the youngest member of the College of Cardinals. He is also the President of Caritas Oceania and represents the region on key issues, especially climate change.    Traduction française : voir ci-dessous : Across the Pacific, people are picking up the bones of their ancestors like shells on the beach. Burial grounds are being washed away by rising tides. Communities are shoring up seawalls with old tyres. I was raised on the beautiful island of Tonga. When I was a child, my par...

No-Dig Gardening   [written by Ross Flint, Marist Associate, Tasmania] - [écrit par Ross Flint, associé mariste, Tasmanie] Part 1 - Why undertake no-dig gardening in the growing of crops? Before explaining "How?" we need to address the prior question "Why?" Most soil already has a good structure for plant roots to grow, and is full of growth-enabling organisms. Millions of fungal threads, nematodes and earthworms, to name a few, are being helpful right under our feet, mostly out of sight. We need to help them to help us. You have already started no-dig without knowing! Since the last time you dug or tilled or forked your soil, it has been healing itself, with networks of fungi...

Child Labor- now and then   [article sent by Jim Carty sm - Australia] The NOW How many times each day do you use your iPhone, or your Cell-Phone of whatever you call it. Next time you do, think of the "rare-earth" metal cobalt hidden inside- a critical component- Then ask yourself: where did it come from and who mined it and how was it mined? Chances are it came from the so-called Democratic Republic of Congo which is the world's largest cobalt mine, and was mined by either a large international Company or by one method known as artisanal mining That is to say, by a small-scale miner (ASM) who is a subsistence miner not officially employed by a mining company, but works independen...

Marist Charism and Peace-making This last week, on 01 December, Marists from 4 corners of the world made Presentations on our Marist Charism and Peace-making.The Marists Presenting were: Fr Hermes [Larry] Sabud – Ranong Thailand; SMSM Sisters Gisèle, Christiana, & Monique – Ngozi, Burundi, Africa; Fr Miguel Contreras – Peru, South America; and Fr Donato Kivi – Fiji, Oceania. The invitation came from the Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation Commission – JPIC Roma – who organize a workshop each year to train JPIC Promoters for Religious Congregations around the world. The Workshop was run this year from 28 November until 02 December, and had the Theme: Pacem in Terris and Laudato Si i...

Ross Flint, Marist Associate, and ordained member of the Anglican Communion, Tasmania, sends this short, stark, report – in the context of COP27 "World is on 'highway to climate hell",  - United Nations General Secretary warns at COP27 summit. António Guterres tells leaders 'global climate fight will be won or lost in this crucial decade – on our watch' In 1992, countries joined an international treaty, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, as a framework for international cooperation to combat climate change by limiting average global temperature increases and the resulting climate change, and coping with impacts that were, by then, inevitable. https://unfccc....