At the Care of Creation Ministry in White Plains, organizers will soon be providing St. John the Evangelist parishioners Lenten calendars that have related reflections and suggested actions; they will also add weekly reflections in the parish bulletin, guided toward “personal and ecological conversion.”

Moreover, coordinators and parishioners will be walking the Stations of the Cross with ecological themes, during Holy Week, at the St. John the Evangelist Church Garden. The large garden is the centerpiece of the ministry.     

“It’s a prayer garden, with Stations of the Cross markers; we’ve got flowers, grass, and there is a children’s playground,” Sister Immacolata “Maco” Cassetta, Congregation of Notre Dame (CND) told The Good Newsroom this week in a telephone interview, noting that the garden was planted in 2019, the same year the parish ministry was established.                                 

Care of Creation Ministry is based at the multicultural parish of St. John the Evangelist and Our Lady of Mount Carmel, White Plains. Organizers noted that after praying the Regina Coeli on Sunday, May 24, 2020, Pope Francis recalled the fifth anniversary of his 2015 encyclical “Laudato si’: On the Care for our Common Home.” (Laudato si’ is Latin for Praised Be). The pope said the document sought to “call attention to the cry of the Earth and of the poor.” 

He invited everyone to take part in the Laudato si’ Year, which was promoted by the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and ran from May 24, 2020, until May 24, 2021. Today, coordinators of the Care of Creation Ministry urge people to continue on that path – the path of “caring for our common home.”           

“As people of faith, we are called to protect our common home; that is very important to us, caring for creation,” Sister Maco said. “Pope Francis speaks of the urgency and our responsibility. We are all connected; when one part of the earth suffers, we all suffer…We plant vegetables; the vegetables that we produce are given to our local food bank, and a shelter for homeless men. We have a rotation of families that care for the garden each week.” 

Sister Maco, a member of the Metro New York Catholic Climate Movement, added that the ministry is “very active with the Religious Education classes. It’s three or four times a year we do intensive garden work; we get dozens of people. The next time will be March 9; it’s always a Saturday, for grooming and cleaning. Everybody is invited to participate. On or around Earth Day we do Clean Up Day; during the Season of Creation, every week we promote something; and we have of course the Blessing of the Animals in the garden.”

Last year’s ministry gatherings included a Lenten community screening of “The Letter,” a documentary that features Pope Francis as the protagonist “along with five leaders representing the voices of Indigenous people, the youth, the poor, and the wildlife of our planet.”  

Mary Denise Cancellare, a ministry member, said she joined the ministry early on “as a reaction to social concerns, to help – because we have a responsibility, a call to do something even though it might be small…I learned from my parents very early to love nature; They instilled in me a love for nature; it’s God’s gift to us.”  

Organizers said people should pray as a community of faith as well as see and learn about the social justice issues surrounding climate change as they affect society. They encourage people to “judge and understand the impact on what is happening and why it is happening, and act to respond to the needs.”

They also encourage everyone to organize trash pick-up events in their neighborhoods, as well as to “compost; reduce, re-use, re-cycle; give your car a break day.”