Birds of the September Sky

Avian constellations in the September sky boast a triangle of stars--and more. Jupiter and Venus are featured planets, too.


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Wiki-image by Blueshade of the lighting during the equinox is used according to Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 license.

Sunday word, 27 Sep 2009

26th Sunday of the Year (27 Sep 2009)
Nu 11. 25-29; Ps 19; Jms 5. 1-6; Mk 9. 38-43, 45, 47-48
Homily of Fr. Paul Panaretos, S.J.
Our Mission: Our Messiah’s Mission

Each one’s vocation is to be disciples of our Messiah Jesus. Misunderstanding our messiah leads to misunderstanding discipleship. The first disciples misunderstood Messiah Jesus while he was with them. He said he would be handed over to others, who would kill him then rise on the third day, but they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to question him. Jesus taught them that God’s messiah came to serve with his life./1/

Today we heard they misunderstood that God’s messiah came to serve all without distinction. John spoke on behalf of the disciples, whom Jesus sent to do his work of healing and evangelizing: “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us.” We easily, too, make the distinction between us and them. It’s part of our human condition and always has been. It challenged Moses, early in the history of God’s people. So, when a young man quickly told Moses, that two men he did not appoint were prophesying in the camp,” Joshua...who from his youth had been Moses’ aide, said, “Moses, my lord, stop them,” Moses’ response speaks to us and our vocation today: Would that all the people of the Lord were prophets!

You and I are prophets. We were baptized into Jesus our Priest, Prophet and King./2/ Jesus, too, sends us to do his work; to give voice to his gospel by our deeds; to grow as people free to do and to be without need of honors; to do and to be with openness and understanding Jesus modeled for everyone, particularly people in need of reconciliation.

That singular voice in the New Testament, the Letter of James, is a companion to the gospel message. The Letter of James shares Jesus’ desire for his church that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities. Equality does not ignore or erase differences. Equality among humans means that each person has inestimable value.

The scathing censure of the rich, who withheld from others so they might enjoy luxury and pleasure, hurts our ears. The result of hoarding—You have condemned; you have murdered the righteous one—wounds our hearts. As ear-hurting and heart-rending as these words and much of the Letter of James is, James reminds us that we are people of morals not manners.

Morals are about right and wrong and about choosing to do the lesser wrong and the more right action. Manners are about habits, customs, practices and the ways we put things to use. If we operated only from manners, we would do the lesser wrong and the more right by chance. Human habits, customs and practices are often shaped by our penchant to distinguish, as the disciple John and Moses’ aide, Joshua, did: between us and them.

Morals, as James, Jesus, indeed our Catholic tradition with its social teaching remind us, shapes our choices to do some things and not others. Jesus clothes our choosing with his Spirit, who makes us prophets, people whose deeds and lives give voice to Jesus here and now. Morals, not manners, make our actions authentic, give our actions authority. Authority as Jesus understood and practiced it and reflecting on Jesus and his gospel, the church understands that authority functions as service and ministry to all in need of God’s mercy. As Gesu Parish knows better and better, placing God’s mercy to us in service of others, shapes us as more faithful, prophetic servants of our Messiah’s mission.

In your daily 15 minutes with Jesus this week, become freshly aware of the Trinity anointing you to continue Jesus’ priestly, prophetic and royal work. Ask Moses, who desired all God’s people to be prophets, to present you to Jesus. Praise Jesus for his goodness to you and ask Jesus, “Help me be your authentic disciple and your prophetic voice in deed and word.” Close saying slowly the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus gave us his prayer to shape us as servants of God’s mercy and help our gospel-actions deepen the union of heaven and earth and of human minds, hearts and lives.



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1. Mark 9.30-37, last Sunday’s gospel selection, which immediately precedes today’s gospel selection.
2. RCIA [228, U.S. Edition]; RBC 125; 151.
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Wiki-images of Moses with children of Israel and the headpiece to the Letter of James are in the public domain.

Saturday word, 26 Sep 2009

25th Saturday of the Year (26 Sep 2009)
Zech 2. 5-9, 14-15a; Resp: Jer 31; Lk 9. 43b-45
Homily of Fr. Paul Panaretos, S.J.
A New Way

In Luke’s gospel angelic and human voices resound earlier prophecy. The angel Gabriel focused Zechariah’s prophecy of God, “I am coming to dwell among you, says the Lord,” in the annunciation to Mary. Whatever hope the prophecy first offered, the incarnation of God in Jesus by the power their Spirit exceeded its first offer; it surpassed how humans could imagine God’s nearness.

Luke demonstrated that when Jesus told his disciples that he would be handed over: ...they did not understand this saying; its meaning was hidden from them so that they should not understand it, and they were afraid to ask him about it.

For all our sophistication, intelligence and technological talents some of God’s meaning is and will remain hidden from our ability. That means God announcing to us, revealing God’s desires to us, is God’s prerogative, and that God desires us to be bold in asking God to help us be alert to how God reveals God’s desire.

“How can this be?” Mary asked the angel, who announced she would be the Mother of God. That the truth was conveyed in a conversation—Gabriel and Mary—does not mean some instantaneous understanding was Mary’s. Rather she accepted the message she received, May it be done to me as you say./1/

What Mary did next tells me that hers was not instantaneous understanding. She journeyed/2/ to minister to her cousin Elizabeth, also pregnant and more than unexpectedly because she had been barren all her life! What went on in Mary’s heart and mind as she journeyed to her cousin? As with us when we’re alone with our thoughts, we weigh and sift, we accept or deny, we rejoice or rue our decisions. When she reached Elizabeth Mary extolled, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord!” and she did not know all that would unfold!

Our community has been stunned by tragic deaths which deeply affected the Gesu Parish; the Gesu School; the St. Ignatius High School; the Beaumont High School; and the John Carroll University communities. No one expected any of the deaths, yet so many responded in ways to incarnate God’s desire, especially in difficulties, to dwell among us. Any meaning in the deaths is hidden from us. Lack of meaning did not stop people from imagining God’s nearness or demonstrating it.

If we wonder what the prophecy, “I am coming to dwell among you, says the Lord,” includes, we know in a new way that it involves us: how we choose; how we respond; and how we receive God in and through others.


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1. The annunciation to Mary is in Luke 1.28-38.
2. Luke 1.39-56.
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Wiki-image of the Galilee is used according to Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license.

"Green Pope" Following Tradition Not Fad

Pope Benedict is very open to the concerns facing the environment. His predecessor, Pope John Paul II, had said that ecology was not opposed to theology. The Greek Orthodox Patriarch, Bartholomew I, has also advocated for the environment. None of these leaders is following fads; nor are they limited to scientific concerns, real as they are. Instead, they are rooted in the Christian theological tradition, which appreciates all created things as gifts of the Creator.

We can expect Pope Benedict to continue to include the care creation in his remarks. "Indeed, the pronouncements on the protection of the environment, on the safeguarding of creation, are more frequent and -- we can say -- almost continuous," commented Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See's press office.

In that same commentary Father Lombardi mentioned Benedict's most recent encyclical, Caritas in veritate. Its Chapter Four is entitled: "The Development of Peoples; Rights and Duties; The Environment." The pope relates these three. At paragraph 48 of his fourth chapter, the pope introduces his remarks concerning the environment, situating them in the Christian theological tradition:

48. Today the subject of development is also closely related to the duties arising from our relationship to the natural environment. The environment is God's gift to everyone, and in our use of it we have a responsibility towards the poor, towards future generations and towards humanity as a whole. When nature, including the human being, is viewed as the result of mere chance or evolutionary determinism, our sense of responsibility wanes. In nature, the believer recognizes the wonderful result of God's creative activity, which we may use responsibly to satisfy our legitimate needs, material or otherwise, while respecting the intrinsic balance of creation. If this vision is lost, we end up either considering nature an untouchable taboo or, on the contrary, abusing it. Neither attitude is consonant with the Christian vision of nature as the fruit of God's creation.

[Hear and watch Fr. E. J. Tyler read both paragraphs 48 and 49.]

Given this "Christian vision of nature," Pope Benedict's "pronouncements on the protection of the environment, on the safeguarding of creation," will continue with frequency. Christian theology and catechesis, of course, grows out of Christian worship of lavishly generous and constantly creating Triune God.
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Wiki-image of Clear green globe is used according to the GNU Lesser General Public License.

Sunday word, 20 Sep 2009

25th Sunday of the Year (20 Sep 2009)
Wis 2. 12, 17-20; Ps 54; Jms 3. 16-4.3; Mk 9. 30-37
Homily of Fr. Paul Panaretos, S.J.
Hosting God

We seek to grow in our Christian lives of faith and action. That is each one’s vocation. The church in the United States recognizes our common vocation on Catechetical Sunday, the third one each September. “Catechesis and the Proclamation of the Word” is the name of this year’s focus. I want to highlight our hearing and receiving the Word, the second half of its proclamation. As St. Paul noted, Faith comes through hearing, that is, receiving the word.

St. James has been sounding these past weeks that the word received leads to action, summarized today as full of mercy and good fruits. Receiving the word—the word of the gospel, the promptings of Jesus’ Spirit or another human’s word—receiving the word demands more than the mechanics of hearing. Receiving the word—particularly the word of the gospel and the promptings of Jesus’ Spirit—involves welcoming it, yielding to it, giving it center-stage rather than me and my needs.

In gospel language giving the word and the promptings of Jesus’ Spirit center-stage for a dedicated amount of time rather than me and my needs involves humility and service. “Whoever wishes to be first shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” These words of Jesus were his teaching on the mystery of the cross. We know that; yet I think we fear learning what that may mean for us. Our fear is not my idea but inspired by the gospel. Consider the scene.

Jesus one more time was teaching and telling his disciples about the cross as his destiny. Notice their reaction after Jesus had told them one more time: they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to question him. Did their fear rise because they did not understand? It could have. I know I’m at least anxious when I don’t understand. Did the disciples fear because they realized some implications of the mysterious thing Jesus had said? That could also have been the case. Surely they did not understand how Jesus once dead could be alive: three days after his death the Son of Man will rise. Even we who believe it do not understand it! Hearing Jesus would rise, I can appreciate the disciples feeling if things would be more than right again with their Messiah, they’d think about their future and how great they’d be, which is what they did behind Jesus’ back: They had been discussing among themselves on the way who was the greatest.

Jesus taught his disciples that the cross is about humble service and being host or hostess to God. Welcoming the visible Jesus welcomes the invisible sender of Jesus: “Whoever receives one child...in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me.”

Jesus chose a child because children are open and take in everything. As we mature we run the risk of being less open and willing, and we often justify our narrowness saying, “I’m being selective.” From being selective we easily rule out the demanding aspects of the gospel, in particular the mystery of the cross. To welcome Jesus is to welcome the cross, and we shun the cross because of how people will think of us or how people will treat us.

Jesus recommends how to treat one another as we welcome the mystery of the cross in our lives. Jesus didn’t censure his disciples for not understand or for arguing. He patiently, gently showed them the meaning of the cross: humble service of and respect for others. The cross no longer is an event in the past, it is a mystery imparting divine power to us as we welcome the cross and its true meaning into our lives.

In your daily 15 minutes with Jesus this week, bask in the Trinity’s love for you. Ask the disciples to present you to Jesus as you are. Speak to Jesus: in your words tell Jesus the many ways you welcome him in others; also tell Jesus what holds you back from welcoming him. Trace the sign of cross on yourself as you tell Jesus. Tracing the cross on ourselves is prayer. Close, saying slowly the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus gave it to us to help us to live the mystery of his cross which challenges us to give forgiveness as much as we ask for it.
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Wiki-image of stained glass window is used according to the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 license.

Migration Through a Theological Lens

Holy Cross Fr. Daniel G. Groody wrote an essay, which lays a foundation for further exploring migration from a theological perspective. His essay appeared Monday. In Fr. Groody's words

Hotly debated, much has been written about the social, political, economic and cultural dimensions of immigration, but surprisingly very little has been written from a theological perspective, even less from the vantage point of immigrants themselves.

Yet the theme of migration is at the heart of the Judeo-Christian scriptures.

After listing several current facts, He offered his "four foundations of such a theology: the Imago Dei, crossing the problem-person divide; the Verbum Dei, crossing the divine-human divide; the Missio Dei, crossing the human-human divide; and the Visio Dei, crossing the country-Kingdom divide."

His essay demonstrates both a knowledge of the Catholic theological tradition and the humans who are migrants and refugees.
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Wiki-image of earth is in the public domain.

Sunday word, 13 Sep 2009

24th Sunday of the Year (13 Sep 2009)

Is 50. 5-9a; Ps 116; Jms 2. 14-18; Mk 8. 27-35

Homily of Fr. Paul Panaretos, S.J.

Gospel As Personal Story

The location of today’s gospel selection within the whole of Mark’s Gospel makes it a hinge in this portrait of Jesus. The setting of the passage, along the way, is the first of many times that Jesus will speak to others on his way to suffer, die and rise in Jerusalem.

Earlier in Mark’s Gospel the disciples had wondered who Jesus was. When Jesus stilled the wind and waves and saved their lives, the disciples, filled with great awe [wondered] to one another, “Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?”/1/ Their ability to identify Jesus as God’s messiah was gradual. Their knowledge of his identity, however, did not allow them to follow in his way immediately.

The disciples portrayed by Mark learned Jesus slowly, often taking two steps back for their steps forward in learning him. Unlike us the disciples did not know the end of the story of Jesus. Yet their two steps back for each one forward is not different from us when it comes to learning Jesus.

Learning Jesus includes unlearning weighing everything from a strictly human point of view. Peter’s rebuke of Jesus when Jesus began to teach [his disciples] that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days, was no mere wish things would be different; Peter rejected what God revealed to Peter; the human struggled against the divine.

The word rebuke, in Peter...began to rebuke Jesus, is the same word that described Jesus confronting the wind and sea, and moreover, the unclean spirits. After calling his first disciples to follow him, Jesus taught in a synagogue, where he healed a man with an unclean spirit: Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Quiet! Come out of him!” What followed next is even more vivid: when the unclean spirit had torn him, and cried with a loud voice, he came out of the man./2/

What we take for granted, Jesus is our crucified Messiah, tore Peter, ripped through his mind and heart and emotions. Put yourself in Peter’s skin: to have a helpless savior or to have a flawed hero or to have a limited liberator or to have a puny protector—those offend us; to Peter all the more offensive was a crucified Messiah.

How often we function the same way! We rebuke God and don’t allow God to grace our limited humanity. We continue to live the struggle between God’s desire and plan for our salvation and our limited logic and urge to be in control at all costs. We echo Peter, who “expressed human wisdom at it’s most convincing.”/3/

This hinge in Mark’s gospel is also a hinge in Christian living: our struggle to trust in Jesus, not just the miracle worker but the crucified Messiah, is demanding. Perhaps its sharpest demand is coming to admit that not thinking in the ways of Jesus is folly and that thinking in the ways of Jesus and his Father is true wisdom.

Two things I find revealing and encouraging in this struggle: first, Jesus did not intimidate Peter or debate him. Jesus disclosed the deception Peter allowed to control him: “You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” Jesus had confidence in Peter, as limited as his learning was. Next, Jesus immediately summoned the crowd with his disciples and continued to make God’s case that the cross yields life. Together both tell me that entering the gospel as my personal story is two steps forward for each one back, those moments when I allow the deception to control me.

In your daily 15 minutes with Jesus, become aware that the Trinity is confident in you. Ask Peter to present you to Jesus because Peter knows how you are attracted to Jesus and ready to rebuke Jesus. Tell Jesus how you are attracted to him and tell Jesus what moves you to rebuke him, to think your ways are better than his ways. Ask Jesus to help you accept Jesus as our crucified Messiah, who turns much of our human wisdom on its head. Close by saying slowly the Lord’s Prayer, which Jesus gave us to grace our human knowing and learn Jesus better and to allow his story to become our story.




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1. Mark 4.41.
2. Mark 1.25.
3. Paul S. Minear, The God of the Gospels: A Theological Workbook, Atlanta, John Knox Press, 1988, p. 40.
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Wiki-image of a gospel page depicting Jesus saving Peter before Jesus rebuked wind and sea is in the public domain.

Friday word, 11 Sep 2009

Anna Mae Schager funeral (11 Sep 2009)

Wis 3. 1-9; Ps 23; 1Co 12.31-13.8; Mt 5. 1-12a

Homily of Fr. Paul Panaretos, S.J.

Shaped Anew

On behalf of Gesu Parish, I extend our prayers and heartfelt sympathy to you, Susann, Patricia and Nancy at the death of your mother, Anna Mae. Your children grieve, too. I noted that you requested gifts be made to the Little Sisters of the Poor and the Hospice of the Western Reserve. Your mom required that kind of care, and your dad did in a more prolonged way. I know what that’s like because my sister informed me while I was living in Asia that Alzheimer’s began to manifest itself in our mom. When I returned in eight months I was able to help my sister, who had been doing the lion’s share of being with our mom and getting her good care.

Although my mom is still alive and profits from full care—not yet hospice-care—I grieve often as she lives her long good bye, as Alzheimer’s is aptly called. I pray that you be more courageous than your grief is sharp. Your confidence in our risen Messiah will help you grieve well and come to experience your mom’s presence in real and new ways.

Today the Catholic church bids farewell to one of hers. I offer a few words to console and strengthen you in your grief; to help you appreciate God’s astounding compassion by noticing Jesus’ victorious dying and rising were present in Anna Mae./1/

We are grateful for the words of remembrance Patty offered. They helped us connect your mom and her passing with the mystery of Jesus’ death and resurrection. I am grateful to Susann for selecting the scriptures proclaimed at Anna Mae’s funeral mass. They shape my brief reflection with you.

I did not have the privilege to meet Anna Mae or Arthur because she had moved and Arthur had died before I came to Gesu Parish over three years ago. I would like to reflect with you on the challenge to let go of our loved ones.

All of us can name challenging times in our lives when people accompanied us through a challenge. All of us can recall how important their presence was, although they could not change our circumstances. Parents and grandparents accompany us in most significant ways. We accompany Anna Mea to church for the last time.

Of course, Anna Mae’s life is changed not ended./2/ That conviction of our faith challenges us to let go of Anna Mae—she is not available to you, her family and friends, as she was—even though our desire is to have her with us; and the assurance of our faith promises that we shall be reunited when Jesus returns in glory with salvation for his people./3/ It is during the interval while we await Jesus’ return, the resurrection of the dead and our reunion with them that we need graced companionship. That’s why we come here. We pray for ourselves as much as, or even more, than for Anna Mae.

The Book of Wisdom reminded us that Anna Mae’s hope [was] full of immortality. I hope your prayers for your mother and grandmother will also deepen your hope to continue to share God’s life now and completely one day. That’s what immortality is, God’s life.

Graced companionship is not only for church. God works in every moment of our lives. At each moment our triune God creates us. When people enjoy clarity, people enjoy God’s companionship. When we experience anew our connection with God, we enjoy God’s com-panionship. Jesus embodied this graced companionship and modeled it for us. We name it Christian love.

Christian love is not an emotion, it’s an action with many aspects as St. Paul reminded us. Perhaps now is the time to remember that Christian love bears all things; believes all things; hopes all things; endures all things.

“Now” because grieving is heavy yet we can move through it as you already have with your dad and your maternal aunt. Moving through grief not only challenges our belief and hope, it shapes them.

Memories and dreams—both waking dreams and sleeping dreams—play roles in grieving. Memories and dreams also play roles in our faith lives. The memory of Jesus in the early church lives in our worship and in our Christian loving each day. More than challenging our Christian faith, hope and love, grieving, that is, letting go of those who go before us filled with the hope of immortality, allow us to exercise our Christian faith, hope and love in more authentic ways.

Without knowing your mom or your dad, your grandmother or your grandfather, I’ve learned their prayerful desire and their prayerful desire for each of you was to live authentic Christian lives. Active Christian loving allows God and others into our lives. Allowing others is active; it doesn’t seem so because we are not in control.

The Beatitudes challenge us precisely to welcome God’s loving kindness each day so that, like Anna Mae, we will one day be able to rest in God’s merciful loving and enjoy new life, life more vibrant than we can imagine.

Until we enjoy God’s life in an unveiled way and see our God as [God is],/4/ graced companionship in its many forms, especially as human accompaniment, is that still more excellent way, which is our surest guide to live authentically the Christian life your parents and your grandparents, in their own ways, have bequeathed to you. Their legacy puts you in contact with the Source of all life, whose Holy Spirit renews your life and is your power to accompany others as your parents and grandparents accompanied you with their lives.

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1. Cf. Order of Christian Funerals, 27.
2. Preface for Christian Death I, Roman Missal.
3. Penitential Rite (C,ii), Roman Missal.
4. Eucharistic Prayer III, Roman Missal.
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Wiki-images of the Resurrection is in the public domain and of the mother of all virtues is used according to the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 license .

Diocesan Reminder about Communion and H1N1 virus

The Diocese of Cleveland, like other dioceses, is working in tandem with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops [USCCB] and the Center for Disease Control [CDC] to help people avoid the H1N1 flu virus. This virus has arrived before seasonal flus arrive in the United States.

The diocesan website as released its information and guidelines about receiving communion to help people stay healthy.

Monday word, 07 Sep 2009

Blessing of Human Labor (07 Sep 2009)
Col 1. 24-2.3; Ps 62; Lk 6. 6-11
Homily of Fr. Paul Panaretos, S.J.
Sharing With the Worker of All

Like some of our other holidays, the originator of today’s is not known. We do know the Central Labor Union, the organization in Brooklyn, New York, and New Jersey, which predated the AFL-CIO and its various locals, adopted a Labor Day proposal and appointed a committee to plan a demonstration and picnic. So that’s why we picnic on this day. Yet there’s more than that.

In the mid-1880s municipalities declared Labor Day holiday observances. Then states began to proclaim the holiday. By June of 1893 the federal government proclaimed today as a national holiday in honor of workers. Still later, I learned recently, the American Federation of Labor convention of 1909 resolved that the Sunday preceding Labor Day was adopted as Labor Sunday and dedicated to the spiritual and educational aspects of the labor movement./1/

Churches and synagogues are free to fashion ways to focus on the spiritual aspects of human labor. We celebrate a mass on Labor Day “For the Blessing of Human Labor.” I want to remark on St. Paul and today’s difficult times.

St. Paul worked with his hands during his evangelizing ministry./2/ As he wrote on of his churches:

You know well that these very hands have served my needs and my companions. In every way I have shown you that by hard work...we must help the weak, and keep in mind the words of the Lord Jesus who himself said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

Manual labor and the "work of God," one of the names for liturgy, are not opposed and they do not exclude the other. Yet St. Paul said long before me that what any of us may work is to use time and created things well, that is, our work gives glory to the Worker of All, the Creator of the universe. The church has always asked us to consider if we use time and created things well, even if no paycheck accompanies our stewardship.

In these difficult times for workers—worrying if they will keep their jobs and worrying if they can find new employment—we do well to pray that people won’t feel burdened by unrealistic guilt if they have lost their jobs. It is easy for responsible people to feel they were at fault, especially when earning a wage is so important to supporting self and family.

Rather, these difficult times for workers renew our opportunity to praise and thank God for giving us stewardship of creation and of the gospel (the riches of the glory of [God’s] mystery among us, we heard St. Paul name it) and to ask God in ways that are more genuine to bless our efforts as privileged stewards and to bless our approach to creation so that at every turn we may know more clearly and live more compassionately what Jesus perceived and practiced: that to save life rather than to destroy it includes the obvious meaning and inspires us to appreciate the true effect human labor has for dignity, solidarity and humane participation in society.

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Today is appropriate to make available the faith-based job link and The Plain Dealer Top Jobs link.

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1. See the Department of Labor website.
2. 1 Corinthians 4.12; 1 Thessalonians 4.11; 2 Thessalonians 3.7-9 and counseled others to do the same in
1 Thessalonians 4.11. Paul was likely a tentmaker (Acts 18.3), which allowed him to be self-sufficient (Philippians
4.11) and able to share with others (Acts 20.34-35).


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Wiki-image of an 1882 New York Labor Day parade is in the public domain.

Pope's Remark on Italy's 'Green' Day

On 01 September, Italy observed a national Day for the Protection of Creation. Pope Benedict welcomed it and remarked on its significance.

It is a significant event, even of ecumenical importance "that has as its theme this year 'air,' an indispensable element for life. ...

I call everyone to a greater commitment to the safeguarding of creation, gift of God.

His last sentence repeated his last sentence from his earlier Wednesday general audience.Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I has been in the forefront of safeguarding the environment. People around the world are taking notice. The Worldwatch Institute, with its Vision for a Sustainable World, is spreading the word.