The Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul is an international community present in over 95 countries on five continents. The Province of St. Louise is located in St. Louis, Mo. They are one of the women’s religious organizations that have set their sights on environmental work.
Sister Mary Jo Stein, DC, one of the co-leads for the province’s Laudato Si Action Platform, shares more about the religious organization’s environmental goals.
“Care of our common home was included as one of the primary goals in our last General Assembly (general chapter) in 2021,” Sister Mary Jo said. “Provinces throughout the world are engaged according to the realities of poverty in their region.”
The Daughters of Charity’s charisms are serving the poor, who are disproportionately affected by climate change.
“We are given to God in community in service of Christ in persons living in poverty,” Sister Mary Jo said. “We respond to urgent needs according to the realities in each region.”
Sister Mary Jo shared some of the creation care and environmental activities that the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, Province of St. Louise, are involved in.
“We are in our third year of our Laudato Si’ Action Plan, which includes education, prayer, and action to address the cry of Earth and the cry of people living in poverty,” Sister Mary Jo said. “We engage our local communities of Sisters in living integral ecology (in) our ministries with youth, schools, neighborhoods, health care, and parishes.”
Sister Mary Jo said the Daughters of Charity assisted with Elizabeth Seton High School in Bladensburg, Md.’s Laudato Si’ native tree planting initiative in 2023 and the development of Stillmeadow Peace Park in a flood plain in a low-income urban neighborhood in Baltimore.
The Daughters of Charity have also started a collaboration with Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Md., to do a two-year biodiversity study to suggest better land management practices on land at the Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton.
This past February, Sisters in Evansville, Ind., held a postcard campaign advocating for a bill that would allow community solar projects to be established in the state.
“We do additional advocacy on local and national levels to support environmental legislation, and we also pray individually and in the community for those most effected by the climate crisis,” Sister Mary Jo said.
Sister Mary Jo explained how creation care is a way to live out the Catholic faith.
“Jesus invites us to care for the least, and we know that climate change has the most impact on those on the periphery,” Sister Mary Jo said. “We contemplate Christ present in those who are poor, and the poverty of Earth is a form of poverty that we are now invited to contemplate and serve. We seek to collaborate with others in caring for those most affected by the climate crisis.”
Sister Mary Jo offered a word of advice to Catholics everywhere who are working for climate action.
“We can’t do everything, but everyone can do something. There is more and more momentum, and we need to join our efforts with other Catholics and with other people of other faiths and goodwill to address the climate crisis,” Sister Mary Jo said. “The Catholic Church is the biggest landowner on a global scale, and we have the opportunity and responsibility to care for our common home so that all of God’s creation can have what is needed to live.”
Originally published by Catholic Climate Covenant