SUMMER SPEAKER SERIES - 2

​2020 is the 100th anniversary of the The Catholic Women’s League of Canada (CWL).  The CWL’s national convention/AGM was to be held in August.  However, with the onset of the COVID19 virus restrictions, all conventions/AGMs were cancelled.  The National Council of the CWL were proactive in using  (www.vatican.vatechnology to engage several of the guest speakers for the National Convention to give their presentations as webinars.  The webinars were called the Summer Speaker Series.  Well over 1,500 people from across Canada and from several other countries tuned in to the webinars.  Today, I share with you some of my notes from the second session.

August 11th - Dr. Donna Orsuto, professor of spirituality at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Italy spoke to us from Rome on "Women Together Caring for our Common Home."  For more information on Dr. Orsuto, check the end of this article. 


Dr. Orsuto – Part I
 
Dr. Orsuto emphasized that we as women can implement Laudato Si’ (www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-frances). This encyclical, she believes, is more relevant now with the COVID19 pandemic than when it was released five years ago by Pope Francis.  Orsuto encourages us to focus on the messages in Laudato Si’.  She points out that Pope Francis is passing on Jesus’ message:  “You Lord are calling on us.”
 
Today is the Feast of St. Clare (1194 – 1253), the first woman to write a monastic rule for women.  For St. Clare, Orsuto says, “less was truly more.”

• Clare recognized her own need to be nurtured while nurturing others.  Clare was immersed in a “culture of caring.”
• Clare recognized the importance of learning to see and appreciate beauty – to praise God when seeing leafy trees.  If you don’t appreciate the beauty, it’s no surprise that you don’t care for the inhabitants of the earth, human and non-human.
• Orsuto encourages us to ask St. Clare to intercede for us as we “care for our common home.”

 
Pope Francis, five years after his encyclical (June 14, 2020) released a book entitled Journeying Towards Care for Our Common Home:  Five Years After Laudato Si’ in which he presents challenging proposals for the practical implementation of his encyclical throughout the church and in the wider world.  Orsuto and the Pope believe that everything is connected.  Each specific crisis we face is a part of a single, complex, socio-environmental crisis that requires a true ecological conversion.
 
Orsuto refers to the Canticle of Creation (St. Francis of Assisi) which Pope Francis uses to open and close the encyclical, Laudato Si’.  Our common home is a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us.  We have an intimate relationship with nature:

• Our destructive action makes our earth less a home for all, not just for humans.
• We’re always pilgrims on the journey.  We are strangers and should only carry what is essential.  We should receive everything as a gift.  We are passing through and have no rights or privileges.  We receive others’ generosity as God’s providence.
• We must cherish earth so the next generation can journey.

 
Orsuto speaks of the methodology underlining Laudato Si’.  We must SEE, JUDGE and ACT. 

• See what is happening.  Pay attention to what is happening to our common home.  Hear the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.
• Judge what we can and should do.  Recognize our responsibility for the crisis.  We’re often self-centred.  We need to be converted.  “The external deserts in the world are growing, because the internal deserts have become so vast.”  (Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, “Homily for the Solemn Inauguration of the Petrine Ministry”)
• Act responsibly to care for all of creation in our homes as well as in the public forum.  The ecological crisis is a moral crisis.  What are we going to do about the crisis?  Everything is connected.  Our actions affect people and things in other parts of the world and future generations.  We must strengthen the conviction that we are “one single family,” and there is no room for ecological indifference.

 
Dr. Orsuto tells us, “Change your Lifestyle!”  Can I live without my air conditioner?  We must live our vocation to protect God’s handiwork.  This is intentional, not optional.  We must face our tendency to consume and embrace a lifestyle where ‘less is more.’  We must develop a deep enjoyment which is free from the obsession with what we have.  We must cherish each moment.  We need an ecological conversion, a community conversion.  Be connected with all creation.  Spend time in nature.  Be grateful for the gift of creation.  Repent as an individual and as a society of our sin against the environment.  Change our lifestyle.  “Live simply so that others may simply live.” (St. Elizabeth Ann Seton/Ghandi)  Read the pledge suggested by Pope Francis (www.livelaudatosi.org) and of the Global Catholic Climate Movement (www.catholicclimatecovenant.org/program/st-francis-pledge).  “I pledge to pray, live, and advocate Laudato Si’.”

• Pray for and with creation – pray at a meeting, take group breaks outside, rediscover the garden, observe spiders, ants and insects creating mansions.  Organize a prayer service for the good of creation.
• Live more simply:  our daily actions should include walking, biking or carpooling to work; they should include ecological practices such as composting, the 5 Rs:  refuse, reduce, reuse, re-purpose, and recycle.  We should take time to be with others, to listen to one another.  Veganism is good for the planet.  Consider solar power.  Drive within the speed limit for efficient consumption of fuel.  Use rainwater to water indoor and outdoor plants.  Along with other organizations, the Catholic Women’s League of Canada must consider its actions.  For example, conventions entice hundreds of people to travel by vehicle and by air.  This creates pollution.  We need to be open to different ways of meeting.  How necessary is it to meet physically?  How often do we need to meet physically?  We must discern the need.
• Advocate to protect our common home:  We need to develop policies, working with other organizations and taking on ongoing advocacy initiatives.  In this global crisis, we must work together.

 
The pandemic has helped us to slow down.  We must sustain this ‘slowing down’ and remain together as family living a simple life even after the pandemic.  We can use Pope Francis as a model:  He walks the talk, taking personal responsibility for his actions. 
  
Dr. Orsuto – Part II
 
Women together can influence how Laudato Si’ is implemented in our homes, parishes and communities.
 
SEE:  Orsuto asks, “What have women done before?  Mary Ward in 1670 said, “And I hope in God it will be seen that women in time will do much.”  What are women doing now?  What’s the best way forward?  What are practical ways to act together?
 
Three women who put into action ‘care for our common home’:

1.  St. Clare of Assisi – ‘less is more’ – you can be immensely happy with little.
2. Catherine Doherty (Ekaterina Fyodorovna Kolyschkine de Hueck Doherty) – 1896 (Russia) – 1985 (Canada) – an advocate for the poor, Doherty founded Friendship House in Canada and in USA to offer food, Catholic education and companionship.  She founded the Madonna House Apostolate.  Her spirituality required that she live a sober, simple lifestyle.  She is known for her emphasis on the spirituality of the present moment:  the duty of the present moment is the duty of God.  She wrote on the concept of stewardship which enters into the nitty-gritty everydayness of our lives.  We must have good stewardship of our own hearts, our speech, our attention, our neighbours, brothers and sisters.
3. Dorothy Day (1897 – 1980): a member of the Catholic Worker Movement; as a social activist, Day had a passion for justice and the cause of the oppressed; developed a newspaper for the working class; set up farms for people to work the land; performed works of mercy; she was a voice for the land; she wanted a land and craft-based society.  Her diaries are found in The Duty of Delight and her letters are found in All the Way to Heaven.

 
Orsuto feels that these three women were prophetic.  Our grandmothers, our mothers, teachers, catechists and parish workers also have shown us in their actions that ‘less is more.’  In the present, our young people like Greta Thunberg are witnesses of ‘care for our common home.’  We need dialogue between the generations.  The young are not in decision-making roles yet; the older generation is needed to make decisions.
 
Women have already taken initiative: 

• Activities of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG) – 2019 plenary session theme:  “Sowers of Prophetic Hope For the Planet.”  There is a global initiative of religious to implement Laudato Si’.
• World Union of Catholic Women’s Organization (WUCWO) – https://wucwo.org/index.php/en/messages-resources/mensajes-de-la-presidenta-general/1484-monthly-message-June-2020: a healthy planet depends on us; personal conversion must be accompanied by pastoral and community conversion
• Global Catholic Climate Movement is based on Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si.’

 
JUDGE/DISCERN:  How can women best implement Laudato Si?’  We need to be connected and co-responsible:

1. Be Connected:  Cultivate communion; work together.  In our churches and in our communities, we’ll only have a lasting commitment if we work together.  African proverb:  “If you want to go fast, go alone.  If you want to go far, go together.” (Ratan Tata)
2. Be Co-responsible:  Recognize that we are responsible for the crisis and for carrying on the mission of the church.  Don’t sit around and wait for someone else to do this.  Be a full, conscious, active laity.  Pastoral responsibility needs to be recognized and encouraged.

 
ACT:  Where do we go from here?  We need to react as a human family, to pray together that with God’s help we can make a difference.  Dr. Orsuto encouraged us to say the Common Prayer for the Fifth Anniversary of Laudato Si’ available on the internet (laudatosiweek.orgwp-content/uploads/2020/04/LSW-Common-Prayer.pdf) and to continue to be inspired by Pope Francis. 
 
In closing, Dr. Orsuto shared a quote by Mahatma Ghandi, “We but mirror the world.  All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body.  If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change.  As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him.  This is the divine mystery supreme.  A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness.  We need not wait to see what others do.”
 
 
Originally from the United States, Dr. Orsuto lectures and gives retreats worldwide. She is the co-founder and director of The Lay Centre at Foyer Unitas in Rome and has authored various books and numerous articles in the area of spirituality.  Dr. Orsuto is active in ecumenical and interreligious dialogue. She currently serves as a consultor for the Congregation for Divine Worship and is a member of the Commission for Ecumenism and Dialogue of the Diocese of Rome. In 2011, Pope Benedict XVI named her a Dame of the Pontifical Equestrian Order of Saint Gregory the Great.