Responding to the Cry of the Earth

Our screens are filled with frightening images of climate change, which is increasingly called the climate crisis, or even the climate catastrophe. This crisis is not something that is happening in other parts of the world; it is something that happens in the world, and there is only one world. The planet we share is not just our ‘common home’; it is our only home. There is no Planet B.

Our future – and the future of the planet – depends on facing up to our responsibility both globally and locally. Conversion and faith, responding to the cry of the earth and the allied cry of the poor, demands significant changes in how we live, in our lifestyle. Changing our way of living merits being called a conversion, as real conversion is not only a change of practice, but requires a change of heart, a transformation from within. Change from within can only happen in a sustained way when it is nourished by the One who lives within every person. Meeting the Lord in the Word of God, in the life of the Church, and in each other is the food that transforms our lives. It is there that we discover the roots of ecological conversion.

Excerpted from The Sacred Heart Messenger, March 2022, Archbishop Dermot Farrell