The lay-run campaign, called Journey to 2030, was launched last weekend in partnership with the Bishops’ Conference and the Ecological Conversion Group, a volunteer group for young Catholics.
The initiative aims to “create a sense of urgency towards our ecological crisis and those suffering from its ill effects” as well as promote confession of environmental sins.
As a result, it has created a toolkit for church leaders to help Catholics confess their environment-related sins and is sending out its resources to parishes across the country.
Before entering the confessional, sinners will be offered an environmental ‘examination of conscience’. This works like a checklist that people can go through before confession with prompts, such as ‘have you taken flights unnecessarily?’
Its website also offers resources for an ‘Advent Reconciliation service’, which invite Catholics to reflect on their own impact on the environment in the areas of diet, transport, clothes and electronics before Confession.
Catholics will be asked to consider whether their clothes are fairly traded, how many animal products they consume, and whether they overuse their mobile phones.
Forgive me Father, for it has been a very sinful year… I’ve flown 113,000 miles so far, and I still have two more trips left. I’ve stayed in hotels over 120 nights, and I ask for freshly laundered towels every time. I rent cars that burn gasoline. Oh and I attended a football game during my travels a few weeks back and there was a flyover with four military jets burning gobs of fuel it was so shameful to be part of it (along with rayciss giant flag unfurled on field Nationalism).
I have no idea if my clothes were fairly traded to me or not, and I feel like such a wretch.
I’m on Atkins, so I consume a lot of “animal products;” red meat and eggs are my faves. I have leather all over my house and in my car. Also, my car is old and only gets 15 mpg. Let’s face it, my carbon footprint is the size of Nebraska.
And yes, I do use my phone constantly, but it’s also great for pulling up my boarding pass so I don’t have to wastefully print one out like those Pharisees.
Catholic Bishops and Priests have authority to make judgements within the boundaries of Sacred Tradition, Dogma, Scripture, the Words Of Jesus Christ. They don’t get to make stuff up and call it Catholic … any more than an Airline Captain – whose authority to conduct a flight according to the rules of safety, Company and Federal regulations is absolute – has authority to tell the Flight Attendant to change her makeup or a passenger to refrain from ordering the hot meal for health reasons. He is not a sky god. Neither is the Priest the Sacramental equivalent. They are all constrained and under the authority of Jesus Christ.
I feel confident in rejecting any such eco – assertion in the Confessional.
As Aqua rightly says, “They are all constrained and under the authority of Jesus Christ.” Agreed. However, this is the present debacle, when words no longer matter, as even Cdl Burke seems to indicate when it comes to Munus/Ministerium, what fundamentally happens to that constraint? Apparently they merely need to effect the action via their interpretation and others’ clear understanding of whatever words are used. Apparently, they can say, “I absolve you of your boo-boos…” and everything is hunky-dory, including, of course eco-sins.
Every time I turn on an extra light or crank up the HVAC, I’m generating demand for the energy business that means employment for people in that sector. Every time I say “yes, I would like a plastic bag” at the supermarket, I’m helping that industry be profitable so they can continue to employ people. Every time I toss one of those or another non-biodegradable plastic item in the garbage, I’m helping to generate something that’ll need to go to the landfill and thus, employ garbage collectors and landfill personnel. Taking a stand against the Bergoglio/Greta/Greenpeace agenda is good for jobs and that’s real social justice baby!
Could the unintended consequences from anti-Pope’s ignorance be more Catholics actually doing the Catholic penance of meatless Fridays?