Background Article

As the Church continually states in her teachings on stewardship, we have an obligation to respect and care for God’s creation. There is, fortunately, a growing awareness that we need to make greater efforts to conserve our natural resources, recycle what we can, and be less wasteful in general. God calls us to be good stewards of every gift has has given us. Stewardship involves governments, corporations, communities, families, and individuals.

“I would like to ask all those who have positions of responsibility in economic, political and social life, and all men and women of goodwill: let us be ‘protectors’ of creation, protectors of God’s plan inscribed in nature, protectors of one another and of the environment.”

Pope Francis, Inauguration, 3/19/13

One of the greatest gifts of creation is the tremendous variety of animal and plant life on our planet. We are finally learning that these, too, should be used prudently. Many medicines are derived from rare plants, and the benefits we gain from these plants, are important to human life. We need to be concerned not only about people, but all living things, because all of God’s creation is a gift.

• Do I appreciate and respect the beauty of various kinds of plants and animals?
• How do I show this respect and live out the call to protect God’s creation?

Links
Environment Justice Program
From the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

CST 101 | Care for God’s Creation
From Catholic Relief Services YouTube

Photo by mypubliclands

Unit Activity

Many children today are becoming involved in helping to care for the environment. Have the children in your group brainstorm a list of things that fifth graders can do to help care for God’s gift of Creation. Some suggestions are tuning off lights after leaving a room; tending a garden; recycling aluminum, plastic, and paper products; giving old toys and games to a younger sibling, cousin, or neighbor; composting leaves; not littering.) Have the children report back on their progress.

Have each child identify two reasons why he or she thinks caring for Creation is one of our basic duties as Christians. Then have the children work individually or as a group to compose a prayer of thanksgiving to God for giving us our beautiful world.

Photo by rkramer62

Unit Activity

Have participants select one school day during the coming week to keep track of items that make up their own lunch. Have them list the items and how each could be reused or recycled (e.g., reuse lunch bag, take home apple core for composting, recycle juice/milk box, plastic, paper). During follow-up discussion, find out how many actually did reuse or recycle their lunch items. Discuss the experience.

To the motto “Reduce, Recycle, Reuse,” Catholics can add a fourth, “Respect.” Respect for God’s creation urges us to follow through with being good stewards. Consider problems such as littering, polluting the air, dumping hazardous waste, wasting electricity or water. Have participants describe one action your family, group, or community can take to become better stewards of God’s creation. Invite the group to create and design their own motto.

Photo by Joi