 |
| Baby Cardinal in Hand. Credit: Public Domain |
Laudato Si’ is a call from the Catholic Church
for all citizens of the earth to care for all of God’s creation. It is a
landmark piece of ecclesiastic writing. This encyclical is sobering, full of
truth about the problems of human-driven climate change, and it is also
incredibly hopeful. To put the hopefulness in perspective; Laudato Si’ made
addressing
human-driven climate change a moral imperative for the 1.2 billion
Catholics in this world—and they are doing things. Catholics are
building rain
gardens, fasting and praying rosaries for climate change action, and
planting trees alongside ideas for a brighter, more sustainable future
for the
planet. Some Catholics are taking the Pope’s message more seriously than
any of
the previous calls to climate action - and when that “some” is a subset
of 1.2 billion
people throughout the world, the potential impact is huge. I find even more hope in realizing that it is
entirely
possible that Catholic-affiliated properties comprise the world’s
largest non-governmental
network of landholdings. Managing just a fraction of this land in an
environmentally could have a global impact on the direction of climate
change.
Leading up to the release of
this encyclical, I found myself inspired to deepen the relationship between my
faith and my education at Conway. Since its release, I have come to grasp in a
very profound way how ecological design truly is a form of charity—it constantly
gives to the communities that encounter and embrace it, as well as the
ecosystems it lies within. The landscape is a place where the known and the
unknowable can couple together to produce great designs. Landscape planning and
design are co-creative acts because they inherently involve many elements
beyond the designer’s control. The verdant
areas of academic explorations between faith and design illuminate questions
about co-creative spaces of the landscape designer and how the controllable and
uncontrollable work into the choreography of plans and designs across a dynamic
landscape. Serious academic discussions about the spatial elements of virtuous
acts and how spiritual paradigms intersect with design practices and theory provide
fertile ground for future explorations. I am glad that Laudato Si' has helped till
the soil for more of these discussions.
This Pope hears the cry of the poor and
vulnerable in the face of human-driven climate change. I heard this cry in the
Sahel of Mali, in West Africa, while working on agriculture and water infrastructure planning. It’s
the cry that “if there is no rain, we die,” as well as a cry that braces for
yet another devastating typhoon. It’s the cry of the victims of violence caused
by climate-escalated conflicts related to unjust resource distribution. While
climate change may be the most difficult struggle of our times, the potential
positive impacts of the Catholic Church with its massive landholdings, large
population, and organized structures rallying behind the cause of climate change
action is a source of incredible hope. Part of that hope for me is that the
world will continue to move toward a future in which the lives of all people
are improved, and that consideration for the lives of the most vulnerable among
us are placed at the forefront of discussions about planning and design.
Author: Molly A. Burhans
goodlandproject.org
 |
| Photo credit: Chris Hendershot, 2015. Well Digging in the Djangoulas [chris.g.hendershot at gmail dot com].
This photo was taken during our time in Mali in our final semester at
the Conway School, while partnered with Mali Nyeta. The village
residents had to dig 9+ meters to reach the water table and they said
the distance was increasing every year. This decrease in water table is
due to increasing drought, deforestation and desertification in the
Sahel. |
No comments:
Post a Comment