A Call to Ecological Conversion

I have spoken much about spiritual conversion, but a faith without actions is dead according to the Epistle of James.  Since taking to the papacy, Pope Francis, has been an avid speaker on how to be good stewards of God.  He has written encyclicals, given audiences and great homilies with super examples of our call as Christians.  There has been a common theme for an “ecological conversion” that needs to happen at a personal level in the heart of each believer.  It is our responsibility to care for creation: our planet, its species, and the poor and vulnerable. Early in my Catholic conversion I was in a young adult meeting and the topic was social justice.  When it was my turn to share I mentioned that I really love animals and that I supported a no kill shelter, educated people on the benefits of neutering and spaying pets and advocated for adopting pets from shelters as opposed to buying them from pet stores.  That day was the first time that I met a mentality that frightened me, Catholics who took my concerns for creation as a hippie-tree-hugger, ignorant of the “real” important issues.  Thus, I found Pope Francis’ writings on creation so inspiring and inclusive of animal lovers like me.  When I accepted my Christian faith, I shopped around.  I attended different denomination churches and finally landed in the Catholic Church because the Eucharist called me home; however, what’s helped me grow roots here has been the vast spirituality.  Though it’s built on a rich historic, apostolic, biblical tradition there’s room for everyone.  God knew that he created all types of people and within Catholicism there's room for all of us.  I think Pope Francis tries to remind of this (sometimes being more successful then others).

When he took to his papacy, I loved him immediately because he spoke my native tongue, my admiration increased when he took the name after Saint Francis of Assisi and then I heard him speak I fell in love with his simple manner of expression. He turned me into an encyclical reading Catholic!  There’s this book that I love, it turned my life when I was a teenager in high school, “The House on Mango Street.”  Sandra Cisneros’ novel helped me more than accept my Mexican identity she helped me find pride in my background and courage to venture in untraveled paths.  In much the same way the writings of Pope Francis have helped me accept that I might be a tree-hugging Catholic, but even so there’s room for people like me in the church.  I’ve often thought about the person that made my small contribution to planet earth seemed even more insignificant, but only as a person does after being struck speechless and finally having found the words to speak... 

I was watching this documentary about endanger pink river dolphins at first glance I thought maybe pollution or the deforestation of the Amazon or warmer temperatures were the cause of their rapid extinction rate.  As I kept watching the film, I discovered that people are using them as bait to catch Piacatinga, a type of catfish.  And simple economics is the cause that exacerbates the problem, “Killing dolphins is free, and their meat is valuable.  Using the flesh from a carcass, fishermen can catch up to 1,100 pounds of catfish… And they can sell the catfish for 50 cents per kilogram, translating into $550 for just a few nights’ work, about double Brazil’s monthly minimum… It’s attracting a lot of poor people into the region to kill dolphins and make easy money.”  However, the people making the most money are the owners of fisheries who buy from and pressure ignorant fishermen.  The issue with pink river dolphins is an example of how behind every evil there’s people who need to be converted.  The long-haired-hippy activists are giving voice to the voiceless and that’s something that as Christians we are called to do.  When this discovery made headlines in South America the poor fishermen were the scapegoats, everyone wanted to blame them for possibly killing off a marine species, but further study showed that those with the greatest gain were the owners of the fisheries who were only thinking of profit dismissing the wrong and exploiting both creation and the poor in their path.

I love Pope Francis because he tells us quite plainly that mistreatment of the created world leads to mistreatment of people.  Though the created world is not of the same level of worth as human beings, God gave it to us to live in harmony with creation.  Pope Francis puts it so beautifully when he says that we should feel "physical ailment with the desertification of soil and a painful disfigurement with the extinction of species."  Furthermore, calling for a personal ecological conversion and that’s something that I want to continue exploring because deep down I am still that girl who returned to the church with a heart full of love for furry, domesticated creatures.  And Pope Francis has given me courage to finally embrace a part of me that has been for some time afraid of rejection because I didn’t have the words to vocalize my very own, very personal ecological conversion.  I hope in future posts to share this love for creation and the way my faith has helped it grow.