Justice and Peace

Archdiocese of Liverpool J&P Commission Memorial Lecture 2022

On Sunday 16th January, the Archdiocese of Liverpool J&P Commission Memorial Lecture took place. Dr Lorna Gold was the speaker and her lecture, entitled “Daring to Hope: Faith and the Struggle for Climate Justice”, inspired all who attended.

The full lecture may be viewed online.

She began her lecture by reminding us of the bleak scientific facts: the world has warmed up 1.2ﹾC since pre industrial times but the last 7 years have been the warmest since records began, and that CO₂ emissions have accelerated since 1950’s and this has been due to human activity. There is now a very steep curve to zero emissions. She reminded us that those countries that have produced the least emissions were being affected first, worst and were least able to mitigate. She also spoke of the 9 tipping elements, ie things that, if they happen would cause huge, irreversible and permanent damage. These include melting of ice sheets, permafrost and Arctic and Antarctic sea ice as well as destruction of the Amazon rain forest. Some of these are already happening and currently changes at the poles and tropics are more extreme than we are experiencing but it is a serious concern.

So how is humanity responding? It would be right to feel horrified at the figures and how close we are to permanent damage, but humanity has been slow to realise this. COP26, 26th meeting of Conference of Parties was held in Glasgow last November, nearly 30 years after the first COP. Yet during that time emissions have more than doubled. In Glasgow, in spite of pressure, the talks did not deliver sufficient change against the clock and the scale of emission reduction was not enough. There was also not enough commitment or generosity to developing countries to help them leapfrog the dirty stages of development . There are many reasons why things haven’t happened more quickly, such as a slowness to appreciate the damage of fossil fuels –  these were not even mentioned at COP21 in Paris in 2015. But it is not all bad news. Although the Climate Crisis is increasing and leading to desperate situations, there is, at the same time, a time of great hope.  COP26 highlighted the level of change in consciousness year on year: people were mobilising around issues, conceptual understanding had increased and practical, nature based solutions, such as clean energy, were becoming available. The price of technology has also decreased and, coming out of the pandemic, people are re-evaluating their relationship with the environment. No-one in Glasgow was untouched by the energy of the climate movement.

She reported that there were also exciting stories from Faith communities. There was an upswell of engagement. Every Faith community shares the belief that we are here for a reason beyond ourselves and each community can work from the wisdom of their traditions and tackle ecology from what it means to be a person of faith. Faith is about what motivates us at the deepest level – and Faith communities make up 80% of the world’s population. On 4th October 2021, Pope Francis  gathered representatives of all major faiths to make an appeal to COP26 but they also stated what they would do, They were to put in place ‘bold plans’ and would be ‘aligning investments’. Signs that a shift is happening. Dr Gold reported that Faithinvest, where she is Director of Movement Building, are looking at what is happening to change bold plans into reality. The Faith communities’ presence at COP26 was following the footsteps of Desmond TuTu in not shying away from speaking truth to power.

Dr Gold then went on to consider the Catholic response. She said that the response would not have come about without the leadership of Pope Francis. His encyclical Laudato Si is a most important document and an international best seller. She mentioned that a film is due to come out this year. She noted that, in paragraph 218, we hear of personal conversion and that a life of holiness is wrapped up in how we look after God’s handiwork. Paragraph 219 talks of the need to come together and of celebrating what happens when we do and how faith connects. Perhaps every Catholic community could think of how they could respond and maybe set some Laudato Si goals

( 218. In calling to mind the figure of Saint Francis of Assisi, we come to realize that a healthy relationship with creation is one dimension of overall personal conversion, which entails the recognition of our errors, sins, faults and failures, and leads to heartfelt repentance and desire to change. The Australian bishops spoke of the importance of such conversion for achieving reconciliation with creation: “To achieve such reconciliation, we must examine our lives and acknowledge the ways in which we have harmed God’s creation through our actions and our failure to act. We need to experience a conversion, or change of heart”.

 219. Nevertheless, self-improvement on the part of individuals will not by itself remedy the extremely complex situation facing our world today. Isolated individuals can lose their ability and freedom to escape the utilitarian mindset, and end up prey to an unethical consumerism bereft of social or ecological awareness. Social problems must be addressed by community networks and not simply by the sum of individual good deeds. This task “will make such tremendous demands of man that he could never achieve it by individual initiative or even by the united effort of men bred in an individualistic way. The work of dominating the world calls for a union of skills and a unity of achievement that can only grow from quite a different attitude”. The ecological conversion needed to bring about lasting change is also a community conversion)

Dr Gold concluded her lecture by considering where we could get started. She spoke of ‘Ripples of care’ where we start with self and community and ripple outwards. Other suggestions were to start a Laudato Si circle and/or engage with the Laudato Si Platform and create a plan. Planning local actions on the environment and celebrating the Season of Creation were also mentioned as was raising voices together and considering how we vote for our politicians…
In the rich Question and Answer (Q&A) session following the Lecture, Dr Gold was asked about ways of engaging parishioners. She replied that finding ways of connecting people with ecology were needed. She suggested working with schools and also making more of the Month of Creation. She believed that there was more that could be done by bringing the environment into the Liturgy, both of Sunday Masses and in the sacraments, and also Pastoral planning in order to reach more of the population.

When asked more about working with schools she commented that schools, especially primaries, were ahead of the parishes and we needed to allow the young people to engage with the parishes. Climate is often seen to be a youth concern but it needs to be all of the faith community.
She also suggested that dioceses should draw up a plan to, for example, retrofit buildings using the economies of scale. Each diocese should have at least one person as an environment officer and encourage people to volunteer

At the end of this Q&A session, participants at the lecture were able to discuss in small groups any possible actions they would like to do in their own areas. Ideas from this will be collated and be available on the Archdiocesan J&P website, along with a recording of the Lecture

 Thanks to Justine for this summary of the Lecture