Cardinal Michael Czerny, S.J. Climate Lecture

Frightening news of climate-related disasters – wildfires, hurricanes, floods or tornados, record summer highs and warmer winters – comes at us almost daily and from almost everywhere in in the world. Millions of families are migrating after their homes and livelihoods have been destroyed “by climate”, and usually these are people in resource-poor places that lack the means to bounce back.

Where is God in all this? Can we – blessed with faith and with education – do anything to help prevent such disasters and rebuild a better world?

With his 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’: On Care for our Common Home, Pope Francis invited people of all backgrounds to undergo an “ecological conversion” in order to live in better harmony with God, with one another, and with all of God’s creation. Therefore “a great cultural, spiritual and educational challenge stands before us, and it will demand that we set out on the long path of renewal” (Laudato Si, paragraph 202).

Czerny is in charge of the Catholic Church’s efforts to assure humanity’s ability to live in dignity. Given how climate-related disasters disproportionately affect the world’s poorest citizens, Czerny’s work involves not just the science of climate change, but migration patterns, social services, global economics and more. His talk at Gonzaga will explore the intersections between faith, climate change, and Gonzaga’s role in caring for our common home.

Date: Thursday, March 9, 2023
Time: 7pm (Pacific Time)
Location: The Myrtle Woldson Performing Arts Center, Gonzaga University. Visitors to campus are asked to follow all Campus Visitor Guidelines.
Event host: Gonzaga Center for Climate, Society, and the Environment
Co-sponsors: Office of Mission Integration; Jesuit Community

Register here

More information here

Questions, contact ClimateCenter@gonzaga.edu

For media inquiries, contact Dan Nailen at nailen@gonzaga.edu, 509-313-5368