Catholic Climate Covenant Abounds in Earth Day Resources

This Earth Day, consider making it a tribute to God’s beautiful work in Creation! To make your Earth Day holy and thank God for His creation, be sure to check out this plethora of resources and ideas from Catholic Climate Covenant (CCC):

Advocacy

• CCC’s April Action of the Month: Urge your senators and to support the Green Climate Fund
• Download CCC’s amicus brief supporting the Clean Power Plan, and read about Catholic institutions’ involvement in supporting the Plan.

Videos

• Watch CCC’s video on Trees for the Earth, an Earth Day Network initiative to plant 7.8 billion trees by 2020, to help mitigate the effects of climate change, support communities, and protect biodiversity.
• Watch Catholic Heath Association’s video, A Reflection on Earth Day 2016 to reflect on the beauty of creation, juxtaposed with excerpts from Laudato si’.
• Watch Catholic Relief Services’s video, El Niño and Ethiopia: Year of Extremes?, which explains the extreme drought caused by climate change, how it has been exacerbated by El Niño, and the effects of the drought on Ethiopia’s agricultural systems and the families that depend on them.

Programs and Activities

• Download an Earth Day Program Guide, filled with prayer ideas, Scripture readings, videos, discussion guides, and activity ideas for your community, parish, school, or university
• Download an Earth Day Flyer to advertise your activities and events
• Download the Columban Center for Advocacy and Outreach Laudato Si’ Study and Action Guide, geared towards individuals and groups seeking to learn more about the encyclical and ways to act upon Pope Francis’s call to care for our common home.

How will your college or university be celebrating creation on this Earth Day? Let us know! 

DePaul hosts Death Penalty programming

In the week of April 22-29, 2015, Sister Helen Prejean, C.S.J., activist and author of Dead Man Walking, will once again visit DePaul for a week’s worth of programming inspired by her work against the use of the death penalty in the United States. Departments from around the university will host panel discussions, class activities, and performances on the topic of death penalty abolition and Sister Helen’s novel. Events include conversations with the Catholic Studies department, the College of Law, the Peace, Justice & Conflict Studies department, and the social work department. For more information, click here.

Want more information?  Read more about ACCU member colleges’ work on the issue of the death penalty and see a compiled list of resources.

Summer Institute: Teaching Peace in the 21st Century

Save the date for the upcoming Summer Institute on ‘Teaching Peace in the 21^st Century’ at the University of Notre Dame. This event will take place on June 15-19, 2015 and it is a week-long program jointly sponsored by the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame and USIP.

Over the past six years, a large number of Catholic colleges and universities have attended. This Institute joins together denominational and public colleges and state universities so that faculty and staff can learn why and how to build quality programs in peace and justice.  Over the past few years the Institute has even welcomed colleagues from African and Latin American universities. This year, the Catholic University of Peru and Uganda Martyrs University are just two examples of the universities which plan to attend.

For more information, click here.

Celebrate the Feast of St. Francis

As a partner with the Catholic Climate Covenant, the ACCU is pleased continue promoting the Feast of St. Francis education program, From St. Francis to Pope Francis to You! Creating a Climate for Solidarity.  The program is designed for October 4 but can be done any time of year.

We urge you to consider hosting a Creating a Climate for Solidarity program at your campus (college versions of the program are available).  Spanish language versions will also be available in time for the Feast of St. Francis.

To register and download the materials, go to: http://catholicclimatecovenant.org/resources/feast-of-st-francis-2014/.  Thank you for your support of this wonderful initiative.

Catholic Higher Education Mission and Identity Database

Need fresh ideas for embodying Catholic identity in your work? Looking for a successful Catholic mission-related program to replicate on your campus? ACCU has launched a searchable inventory of promising practices in Catholic higher education mission and identity. This database includes programs, events, curricular designs, department structures, publications, and other practices that foster a greater sense of the institution’s Catholic mission and identity in the campus community.

If you have a practice to share, please complete the online form, and we will be glad to promote your good work!