The St. Francis Xavier Environment Ministry promotes care for God's creation - the human community as well as animal and plant life - through environmental education, advocacy, and sustainability projects.
 
Pope Francis's encyclical Laudato Si' declares a responsibility to care for “our common home” and to realize our oneness with climate, the creatures of the earth, and our moral use of it. Because of human degradation of nature, he declares it is now an aspect of social justice. We at St Francis Xavier engage in prayer and action to address environmental justice, pollution prevention, species preservation and the exploration of new technologies for clean energy. As individual parishioners and a parish community, we educate one another and model sustainable living practices, offering hope and inspiration to others. 
 
Recent education programs include an environmental film series and special guest speakers. Advocacy efforts include organized campaigns to contact elected officials about pending environmental legislation at the federal, state and New York City levels.  As a group, we participate in environmental rallies. As a parish, we actively celebrate Earth Day (April 22) and the Season of Creation (Sept 1-Oct 4). See the parish calendar for related events throughout the year.
 
We partner with Metro New York Catholic Climate Movement, a chapter of Global Catholic Climate Movement, Catholic Climate Covenant, GreenFaith and Interfaith Power and Light. We also work with our brothers and sisters of other faith traditions to collectively raise our voices for our common concerns.

Join us: SFXEnvironmentMinistry@gmail.com

Laudato Si' Reflection Series: six reflections, one on each chapter of Laudato Si'.   Each one has a meditation song, a scripture reference, a prayer, a summary of the chapter, reflection questions, and links to additional resources. Good for individual or group study and discussion.  Can be used in parish bulletins, e.g. during the Season of Creation or Lent, or as the basis of a study program.  Good tool for bringing a group together to look at the important ideas of the encyclical.

Reflections