Maryknoll Mission Institute Program, ‘Caring for Creation in a Changing Climate’

Untitled-1May 15-20, 2016

Maryknoll Mission Institute, Maryknoll, New York 10545-0311

This program will follow Pope Francis’ call in his encyclical, Laudato Si’, for the human family as stewards of the earth, to engage in dialogue and provoke action that will address the needs of our earth and how ecologically we might better protect and care for our common home. Through a careful reading of Laudato Si’ and the book Enough is Enough: Building a Sustainable Economy in a World of Finite Resources, we will consider our place in a finite world and ourselves as a part of nature with which we must live in harmony. We  will  look  at  how  economic policy  and  environmental sustainability are  intertwined and consider how we can move from a philosophy of “more” to one of “enough,” wherein the goal for all is to have “sufficient for a good life” (Enough vii). As caregivers of creation, with Pope Francis, we will heed the call to build a culture that will face and address our ecological crisis, a culture that will “hear the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.” (Laudato Si’)

Resource Person:  Judith Mayotte, PhD. has taught at several universities including, most recently, The University of the Western Cape, Cape Town (South Africa). While she was a professor at Seattle University and Marquette University, Dr. Mayotte created two international service-learning programs, one being the Marquette University South Africa Service-Learning Program and the other Seattle University’s International Development Internship Program. She was invited to be the inaugural Desmond Tutu Distinguished Chair in Global Understanding on the Semester at Sea (UVA). She has also taught at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in D.C. and the Salzburg Seminar.

For a number of years she worked among and advocated on behalf of refugees and internally displaced civilians around the world. Currently she is involved in issues dealing with climate displacement. She has served on a number of Boards, among them: Refugees International, The Women’s Refugee Commission (Chair), Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation, The International Rescue  Committee,  Visionaries  and  Global  Ethics  and  Religion  Forum.  In  1994,  she  was appointed by the first Clinton Administration to the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration as Special Adviser on refugee issues and policy. She is an Emmy Award-winning television producer and the author of Disposable People?:  the Plight of Refugees (Orbis, 1993). She  has  received  several  honorary  degrees  and  awards  for  her humanitarian work.

Course Readings:

  • Dietz, Bob and O’Neill, Dan. Enough is Enough: Building a Sustainable Economy in a World of Finite Resources (San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 2013)
  • Laudato Si’. (Praise Be: On Care for Our Common Home) is available for download or purchase. (Each participant is requested to come with a copy.)
  • Tucker, Mary Evelyn and Grim, John.  Editors, Thomas Berry: Selected Writings on the Earth Community (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2014), Selections from Scripture.

Bibliography: A more lengthy bibliography will be available during the program.

Application forms and program descriptions may be found on our website:

https://maryknollsisters.org/maryknoll-mission-institute-2/