With forks stretching toward the Oklahoma border, and portions snaking into Dallas, Fort Worth, and south to the gulf, the Trinity River flows an expansive 710 miles across the Lone Star State. As the river reaches North Texas, its Elm Fork travels toward the campus of Cistercian Preparatory School. There, high school students — at times laden with glass jars and nets, clipboards and aquatic robots — have been conducting hands-on research as part of the Irving school’s newfound educational partnership with the Trinity Park Conservancy.
Environment
St. Francis of Assisi was declared a saint nearly 800 years ago, just two years after his death. Not until much more recently — about 50 years ago — was the beloved 13th-century Italian friar called the patron of ecology.
“Give us this day our daily bread.” With those words from the Lord’s Prayer, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops is framing a new national reflection on food insecurity.
To celebrate three occasions — the worldwide Jubilee 2025; the 10th anniversary of the 2015 release of Pope Francis’ landmark environmental encyclical “Laudato Si'”; and the annual ecumenical Season of Creation Sept. 1-Oct. 4 — Catholics across America have committed themselves to spiritual expeditions not on the well-worn pilgrimage routes of Europe but in their own communities.
Beneath the sprawling branches of surrounding trees, Gretchen Day can feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. She has always found God in his creation, the Our Lady of Angels Catholic Church parishioner said — in the plants, the animals, all those things the Creator declared “good.” So, when she has opportunities to care for the Earth, she does; and that commitment led her to the Green Team.
Eight centuries ago, St. Francis of Assisi composed a poem that remains familiar today, inspiring hymns, art, and the titles of two of the late Pope Francis’ teaching documents on integral ecology.
Bishop Paul Tighe, a top official at the Vatican’s Dicastery for Culture and Education, is urging caution on artificial intelligence — warning that its hidden environmental costs, impact on jobs, and broader social risks can’t be overlooked.
“We must pray for the conversion of many people, inside and outside of the Church, who still do not recognize the urgency of caring for our common home,” Pope Leo XIV said while celebrating a new formulary of the Mass “for the care of creation.”
Catholic priests will now be able to celebrate Mass “for the care of creation” after the Vatican announced that a new formulary of prayers and biblical readings for the Mass will be added to the Roman Missal — the liturgical book that contains the texts for celebrating Mass in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church.
St. Peter’s Basilica and some of its surrounding buildings are working to reduce their environmental impact by becoming more energy efficient and promoting sustainability.