(Vatican Radio) Following the 2nd anniversary of the publication of his encyclical “ Laudato Sì – On Care of our Common Home ”, Pope Francis has endorsed a pledge campaign that aims to mobilize at least 1 million people to directly engage in turning the encyclical’s message into action.
Listen to the report by Linda Bordoni :
Organized and promoted by the Global Catholic Climate Movement , the pledge calls on those who sign to answer the call of Laudato Sì by praying with and for creation, living more simply, and advocating to protect our common home.
The “Laudato Sì Pledge campaign” has received support from Church leaders from around the globe including Cardinal Turkson, Cardinal Tagle, Cardinal Ribat, Cardinal Cupich and Cardinal Marx. It has also garnered the support of major environmental leaders.
Tomás Insua, Executive Director of the Global Catholic Climate Movement, said, “We are grateful and inspired by Pope Francis’ endorsement of the Laudato Si’ Pledge. With 1.2 billion Catholics around the world, we have a critical role to play in tackling climate change and the wider ecological crisis. Pope Francis has already changed the discussion around climate change and this pledge is inviting us to put the Church’s teachings into action and answer the urgent call for strong political action and lifestyle change put forth in Laudato Si’.”
The Pope’s endorsement adds to the momentum of recent Catholic climate action: Pope Francis requested that Angela Merkel uplift the Paris climate accord during the G20 summit, several Catholic organizations recently divested from fossil fuels, GCCM joined other Christian groups calling on governments to take strong action before the G7 last month and the Movement’s Executive Director joined other scientific, political and faith leaders in publishing a letter in Nature Magazine pushing the G20 to recognize the urgency of the climate crisis.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) More than one hundred seminary rectors from throughout the English-speaking world gathered in Rome earlier this month under the guidance and sponsorship of the Congregation for Clergy to discuss the revised handbook of best practices for the formation of seminarians.
Known as the Ratio fundamentalis institutionis sacerdotalis – ratio fundamentalis or just ratio for short – the latest edition of the document is titled, On the Gift of Priestly Vocation .
The basic and animating idea of the Ratio is that of helping seminaries all around the world to succeed in their mission of forming men for the priesthood by first firmly grounding them in a self-conscious attitude of missionary discipleship, and then giving them the tools to live their lives as disciples to the fullest, in and through the ministerial priesthood to which God calls them through His Church.
One of the participants, Msgr. David L. Toups , rector of St. Vincent De Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach, Florida, told Vatican Radio this new document, which brings together the many disparate elements offered as teaching and formation tools by several different dicasteries in the thirty-odd years since the last Ratio was promulgated, and offers best practices to seminary rectors who work in vastly different cultural contexts in service of one mission, is more than welcome.
“It’s highly significant for us in the seminary world,” he said.
Msgr. Joseph Betchart , rector of Mount Angel Seminary in St. Benedict, Oregon, also took part in the course, and told Vatican Radio he welcomes the holistic approach to formation, with the particular emphasis it puts on discipleship.
Click below to hear our conversation with Msgr. Toups and Msgr. Betchart
“In order to shepherd the People of God,” he said, “you have to – first of all – be a member of the People of God.”
Msgr. Betchart explained that the view this document takes is comprehensive.
“It is really focused on forming the man to be first and foremost a disciple of Jesus Christ,” he said, “because, as the axiom goes, ‘You can’t give what you don’t have.’”
The course sponsored by the Congregation for Clergy on the fundamental principles of the new Ratio fundamentalis ran from June 26 th to July 7 th in Rome.
(from Vatican Radio)…