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Statement by Canada’s Catholic Sisters Regarding the Climate Emergency

On this World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, leaders of Canada’s 65 Congregations of Catholic Sisters are calling on the country’s politicians to respond to the climate emergency declared by Parliament by taking concrete steps to avert it.

As Women Religious, caring for all of God’s Creation is an essential part of our faith. The drastic changes to our climate brought on by the release of greenhouse gases pose the greatest threat to all living beings. Yet, not enough is being done to address it. In Laudato Si’, Pope Francis points out that “reducing greenhouse gases requires honesty, courage and responsibility, above all on the part of those countries which are more powerful and pollute the most.” (169)

For our part, we have taken robust action to combat the destruction of our planet and to care for our common home. Many of our Congregations have taken steps to:

Divest from fossil fuel portfolios to clean and renewable energy projects.

  • Eliminate single-use plastics.
  • Retrofit residential buildings, including solar, bio-thermal and renewable natural gas installations.
  • Commit to the Blue Community project which entails treating water as a sacred resource and shared commons.
  • Plant trees in Canada and in the countries where our Missions exist.
  • Compost, reduce and recycle.
  • Partner and provide support to community groups and movements committed to address the climate emergency.

We urge all politicians running in the upcoming federal election to acknowledge the climate emergency and to implement an immediate multilevel policy strategy for a just transition to ecologically sustainable living.

The actions to address the climate emergency should be concrete, justice-based and stripped of partisan politics. We invite political leaders to join us in caring for our common home by:

Keeping fossil fuels in the ground and ending subsidies to fossil fuel and plastic producers.

  • Redirecting investments and rapidly expanding the renewable energy economy, including investment in retraining for workers affected by job loss in fossil fuel production.
  • Continuing to hold companies to account by putting a cost against the greenhouse gas pollution they produce.
  • Coordinating an intensive and sustained public awareness effort to change attitudes and behaviours.
  • Implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and developing climate emergency policies in line with the Indigenous knowledge and teachings.

We are facing an urgent and potentially irreversible threat to Earth. With so many others on the planet, we hope that politicians will show commitment, leadership and collective wisdom in the movement to protect our planet from destruction. This is the only way forward together.

UISG (International Union of Superiors General) is a worldwide organization of Superiors General of Institutes of Catholic Women Religious. It encourages dialogue and collaboration among Religious Congregations within the Church and larger society. This statement is a collaboration of all 65 Canadian members of the UISG.

For more information:

Sister Margo Ritchie – Congregational Leader of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada mritchie@csjcanada.org (519) 432-3781 and Lisa Tabachnick – Director of Communications Sisters of St. Joseph of Toronto ltabachnick@csj-to.ca (416) 467-2630

Signatories:

Antoniennes de Marie – Chicoutimi, Québec

Congrégation de Notre-Dame – Montréal, Québec

Dominicaines Missionnaires Adoratrices   – Québec, Québec

Filles de la Providence  – St-Constant, Québec

Filles de Marie-de-L’Assomption  – Campbellton, Nouveau Brunswick

Grey Sisters of the Immaculate Conception –Pembroke, Ontario

Institut Notre-Dame du Bon-Conseil de Montréal –Montréal, Québec

Les Dominicaines de la Trinité  – Shawinigan, Québec

Les Missionnaires du Christ-Roi  – Montréal, Québec

Les Sœurs de la Providence   – Montréal, Québec

Missionnaire Notre-Dame des Anges – Sherbrooke, Québec

Missionnaires de l’Immaculée Conception – Montréal, Québec

Missionnaires Oblates du Sacré-Cœur et de Marie-Immaculée – Winnipeg, Manitoba

Notre-Dame du Sacré-Cœur  – Dieppe, New Brunswick

Oblates de Béthannie  – Québec, Québec

Oblates Franciscaines de St-Joseph  – Montréal, Québec

Our Lady’s Missionaries – Toronto, Ontario

Petites Filles de Saint-François – Montréal, Québec

Petites Filles de Saint-Joseph – Montréal, Québec

Petites Franciscaines de Marie –Baie-St-Paul, Québec

Petites Sœurs de la Sainte-Famille – Sherbrooke, Québec

Religieuses Hospitalières de St-Joseph – Montréal, Québec

Servantes du Saint Cœur de Marie – Montréal, Québec

Servantes du Très Saint-Sacrement – Sherbrooke, Québec

Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul – Halifax, Nova Scotia

Sisters of Charity of the Immaculate Conception – Saint John, New Brunswick

Sisters of Mercy of Newfoundland – St John’s, Newfoundland

Sisters of Mission Service  – Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

Sisters of Providence of Saint Vincent de Paul – Kingston, Ontario

Sisters of Saint Joseph in Canada  – London, Hamilton, Peterborough, Pembroke, Ontario

Sisters of Saint Joseph of Sault Ste Marie – North Bay, Ontario

Sisters of Saint Joseph of Toronto – Toronto, Ontario

Sisters of Saint Martha of Antigonish – Antigonish, Nova Scotia

Sisters of Saint Martha of Prince Edward Island – Charlottetown, Prince Edward

Island

Sisters of Social Service – Toronto, Ontario

Sœurs Augustines de la Miséricorde de Jésus – Québec, Québec

Sœurs de Charité de Saint-Louis – Montréal, Québec

Sœurs de Charité de St-Hyacinthe – Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec

Sœurs de l’Assomption de la Sainte-Vierge – Québec, Québec

Sœurs de l’Institut Jeanne d’Arc – Ottawa, Ontario

Sœurs de la Charité d’Ottawa – Ottawa, Ontario

Sœurs de la Charité de Montréal (Sœurs Grises) – Montréal, Québec

Sœurs de la Charité de Québec – Québec, Québec

Sœurs de l’Assomption de la Sainte Vierge – Nicolet, Québec

Sœurs de Miséricorde – Montréal, Québec

Sœurs de Notre-Dame Auxiliatrice – Rouyn-Noranda, Québec

Sœurs de Notre-Dame du Bon Conseil – Chicoutimi, Québec

Sœurs de Notre-Dame du Sacré-Cœur – Dieppe, Nouveau Brunswick

Sœurs de Notre-Dame-du-Perpétuel-Secours – St-Damien-de-Bellechasse, Québec

Sœurs de Sainte-Anne – Lachine, Québec

Sœurs de Sainte-Croix – St-Laurent, Québec

Sœurs de Sainte-Jeanne d’Arc – Québec, Québec

Sœurs de Sainte-Marthe de Saint-Hyacinthe – Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec

Sœurs de Saint-François d’Assise – Québec, Québec

Sœurs de Saint-Joseph de Saint-Hyacinthe – Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec

Sœurs de Ste-Anne – Lachine, Québec

Sœurs de St-Joseph de Saint-Hyacinthe – Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec

Sœurs de St-Joseph de St-Vallier  – Québec, Québec

Sœurs des Saints Noms de Jésus et de Marie – Longueuil, Québec

Sœurs du Bon-Pasteur de Québec – Québec, Québec

Sœurs Notre-Dame du St-Rosaire – Rimouski, Québec

Sœurs Servantes de Notre-Dame Reine du Clergé – Lac-au-Saumon, Québec

Ursuline Sisters of Chatham – Chatham, Ontario

Ursuline Sisters of Prelate – Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

Ursulines – Québec, Québec