Sister Mary Rowell, CSJ, says people are well aware of environmental destruction, but few do anything about it. Photo by James Buchok / The Prairie Messenger.Canadian Religious Conference asks how Christians can contribute to the discourse on the environment
By James Buchok
The Prairie Messenger

WINNIPEG (CCN)--Society has a moral sense of suicide, homicide and genocide “but no moral sense of biocide or geocide” says a bioethicist and member of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peterborough, Ont.

Sister Mary Rowell, CSJ, was quoting the late Thomas Berry, an American Catholic priest and ecologist as she spoke at the Canadian Religious Conference at St. Boniface Pastoral Centre Oct. 29. Rowell said people are well aware of environmental destruction, but few do anything about it.

The conference was entitled A Place at the Table: The Contribution of Christians to the Public Discourse on the Environment. The CRC organized the daylong event “for all who desire to explore more deeply our relationship with creation and our commitment to the integrity of creation.” The Montreal-based CRC was founded in 1954 with a mission to “promote justice, peace and respect for human rights and the environment.”

“How do we as people of faith turn an ‘is’ into an ‘ought?’ ” Rowell asked. “How do we take the facts and turn them into something we will do something about? How do we make those facts into a moral imperative, something we need to do?”

Rowell said when people look at the universe, things can become objects. She said that’s when events such as the Holocaust happen, “when something is seen as less than human.”

Originally from Cambridge, England, Rowell became a nurse and worked in developing countries in Asia. She later completed a graduate degree in medical law and ethics at the University of London, England and was later a clinical ethicist at the Children’s Hospital in Toronto. She taught bioethics at the University of Toronto and completed a doctoral thesis in bioethics, ecology and theology.

The Sisters of St. Joseph of Peterborough is a community of about 80 Catholic women whose mission is shared by 10 groups of lay associates in Ontario and Alberta.

“We can learn from the earth and its seasons such as this season of fall, a time of letting go. Do we need to let go of our economic systems? Look at the Occupy Wall Street movements; people are saying ‘Enough. We have to start reflecting.’ ”

Rowell said the Canadian bishops have written, “ ‘we are called to deepen our capacity to appreciate the wonders of nature as an act of faith and love.’ Am I prepared to put aside some things in order to achieve this?”

Rowell said liturgists have the ability to speak to and encourage “a deepened appreciation of nature. They must sensitize us to the problems and encourage us to work for solutions that our planet and future generations require.”

“We must make the links between social and ecological justice more evident in our preaching and in our community action,” she said. “Preach positive recognition and support for environmentalists, educators and activists. Are we prepared to work with them or do we stay in our own silos, fragmented?”

Rowell said all churches “call us to ecojustice. Pope Benedict XVI has been called the green pope; he has done remarkable work with other church leaders and other denominations. How do we get it from Rome to the pews? I’ll bet each of us has an option to do this.”

Rowell said in his social encyclical Caritas in Veritate, Pope Benedict wrote, “The church has a responsibility toward creation and she must assert this in the public sphere.”