{"id":38277,"date":"2021-04-22T02:31:09","date_gmt":"2021-04-22T06:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.desales.edu\/dsu-daily\/?p=38277"},"modified":"2021-04-21T16:46:47","modified_gmt":"2021-04-21T20:46:47","slug":"earth-day-racism-and-the-pandemic-fr-kevin-nadolski-osfs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.desales.edu\/dsu-daily\/2021\/04\/22\/earth-day-racism-and-the-pandemic-fr-kevin-nadolski-osfs\/","title":{"rendered":"Earth Day, Racism, and the Pandemic\u2014Fr. Kevin Nadolski, OSFS"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Fr

Writing this reflection on our colorful campus the day before Earth Day, I am grateful for the cool breeze that streams the dank, sour smell of mulch through my pollen-coated nasal passages. I recall the quick, mini-debate with the DPT student who held the Chappuis door for me this morning: Whose allergies are worse? It is spring, and we are joyful.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sort of.<\/span><\/p>\n

The pandemic pricks our patterns of life more painfully than the needles that protect us from illness and death. Racism imprisons our nation, despite a verdict that confirms what we already knew: Racism kills. Fatigue slows us; duty drives us; hope pulls us.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Racism feels so distant and different from Covid-related deaths, infections, and economic perils\u2014 and even further removed from environmental degradation. Yet, they are intimately connected.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In\u00a0<\/span>Laudato Si<\/span><\/em>, the seminal encyclical of Pope Francis calling the world to care for creation, he declares in a reflection on the biblical account where Cain kills Abel that \u201ceverything is interconnected\u201d: \u201cDisregard for the duty to cultivate and maintain a proper relationship with my neighbor, for whose care and custody I am responsible, ruins my relationship with my own self, with others, with God and with the earth\u201d (no. 70).<\/span><\/p>\n

Cain kills Abel.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Derek kills George.<\/span><\/p>\n

Humanity kills the Earth.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Everything is interconnected.<\/span><\/p>\n

In his book,\u00a0<\/span>The Ten Green Commandments of\u00a0<\/span><\/em>Laudato Si (2019)<\/span>,\u00a0<\/span><\/em>Fr. Joshtrom Kureethadam, professor of philosophy at Rome\u2019s Pontifical Salesian University and official of the Vatican\u2019s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, hails a number of ecological virtues; two intersect with our University\u2019s core values: gratitude and humility.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Pope Francis reminds us pointedly about the thankfulness we likely learned in our youth:<\/span><\/p>\n

One expression of this attitude is when we stop and give thanks to God before and after meals. I asked all believers to return to this beautiful and meaningful custom. That moment of blessing, however brief, reminds us of our dependence on God for life; it strengthens our feeling of gratitude for the gifts of creation; it acknowledges those who buy their labors provide us with these goods; and it reaffirms our solidarity with those in greatest need (no. 227).<\/span><\/p>\n

The pope goes on to remind us of the essential nature of the Eucharist and elsewhere tells us: \u201cThrowing away food is like stealing from the table of those who are poor and hungry\u201d (Angelus Address, June 5, 2013). As a University community in response to our core value of gratitude, can we commit to praying Grace Before and After Meals? Can we commit to not wasting food and not stealing from the table of the poor?<\/span><\/p>\n

With humility, Pope Francis offers a challenge and an examination of conscience.<\/span><\/p>\n

Once we lose our humility and become enthralled with the possibility of limitless mastery over everything, we inevitably end up harming society and the environment. It is not easy to promote this kind of healthy humility or happy sobriety when we consider ourselves autonomous, when we exclude God from our lives or replace him with our own ego, and think that our subjective feelings can define what is right and what is wrong (no. 224).<\/span><\/p>\n

Inspired by our core value of humility, can we distance ourselves from hubris, the virtue\u2019s antithesis, that tempts us to put ourselves over others, the Earth, or even God. Indeed, we are not our own masters.<\/span><\/p>\n

Below are listed a number of the events for today\u2019s Earth Day, begun in 1970 on this day because of its position between how colleges planned their Spring Break and final exams. The commemoration is no longer just for University students. It is humanity\u2019s call to remember that when we do not respect the Earth, we can stop respecting our neighbors with whom we live on Earth, those struggling for fresh water or even a breath of fresh air.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Fr. Kevin Nadolski, OSFS, is the vice president for mission and an assistant professor of education.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Earth Day 2021 Events<\/span><\/h3>\n

April 22, 2021, n<\/span>oon\u20134PM
\n<\/span>University Mall<\/span><\/p>\n

Sponsored by <\/span>Office of Student Engagement and Leadership<\/p>\n

Center for Faith and Justice:<\/span><\/p>\n