‘Earth Week’ in the Diocese of Kerry will take place from Sunday 17 April to Sun 24th April, organised by the Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation/JPIC Committee. The keynote speaker will be Fr Sean Mc Donagh Columban missionary and Eco Theologian on “The Prophetic Challenge of Laudato Si’ “ taking place in St Brendan’s Parish Centre, Upper Rock Street, Tralee on Thursday 21 April at 7.30pm. All are welcome.
This year the chosen theme for Earth Week is ‘Loss of Biodiversity’. This is taken from Pope Francis’ Encyclical or letter called “Laudato Si’ …On Care for our Common Home”. The letter is a call or challenge to ‘every person living on the planet’ to care for ‘common home’.
All parishes and parishioners are invited to respond to this call by making their grounds and private gardens more biodiversity rich by protecting and encouraging the variety of plants, trees and habitats for wildlife including bees.
A series of meetings have been held around the diocese and a leaflet has been distributed to parishes with some specific advice including a checklist and actions to take, for example, planting herbs, leaving a small area of lawn uncut, protecting a native hedgerow or starting a compost heap.
Some parishes are undertaking audits of their grounds to see what they can do to promote biodiversity and have received help for this from the Biodiversity Officer of Kerry County Council assisted by local biodiversity tutors.
There are various events taking place during the week. Killorglin has a very busy schedule.
On Thurdsay the 21st Fr Mc Donagh will launch his new book, On Care for Our Common Home. In this, McDonagh reflects on the encyclical’s various themes. recaps the development of Catholic theology on creation of the past half-century, and offers ideas on how to transform Pope Francis’ vision in Laudato Si’ into meaningful action and a central piece of Catholic theology.
Earth Week calls individuals and communities to take steps to stem the loss of biodiversity in our gardens, communities and parishes.