As Laudato Si Week comes to a close, we want to thank all of you who registered Saint Kateri Habitats, who took action on their properties, and those who donated to the Center! We are so grateful for you! This week, we had habitats registered all over the world. An organic farm in Canada, a religious order, a garden in India, native plant gardens in a parish and home in Maryland, a pollinator garden in New York, a property in Ohio, and a native plant oasis in Virginia, all of which you’ll be hearing more about soon! We also heard of habitats being created and updated in coastal Delaware, in Texas, and Pennsylvania. In addition, preparation began for the Saint Kateri Habitat planned for Red Hill Farm owned by the Sisters of Saint Francis of Philadelphia, with native plants delivered and almost ready for planting. One Kateri Habitat in California even had special visitors: a bear mama and her cubs! At the Center, we believe that paying attention to God’s creation and creating habitat for people and wildlife will spark the ecological conversion that many popes have encouraged, and we will work tirelessly with you to make that happen!
With Laudato Si Week behind us, we must not forget our call to action, and continue the changes we may have made during this special week! While special environmental days, creation care ministries, and catholic environmental organizations are necessary and incredibly important, we must not forget we are Catholic, and being Catholic means we are stewards of our earth who care for creation as an integral part of our lives all the days of the year. We believe that caring for creation is integrally connected to caring for the poor and most vulnerable among us, and building a culture of life is the only way forward to a healthy human family! So, with this in mind, let’s keep going! We need YOU. We need the Church and religious orders, and also lay catholic people, to create this ecological conversion. Let’s work together to care for our earth and one another, in the footsteps of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha and Saint Francis of Assisi.