Quick: name one of your favorite Christian axioms. You know, one of the “tweetable” maxims that has developed over the two thousand year history of the Church. Is it: Do to others whatever you would have them do to you? (Mt 7:12) What about: Our hearts are restless until they rest in you? (Augustine) Maybe: If you want peace, work for justice? (Pope Paul VI)

As a so-called “cradle Catholic” with a major research interest in Catholic Social Teaching, it might surprise you to learn that one of my favorite Christian axioms is attributed to the great Protestant theologian Karl Barth, who said that we must approach the world “with a Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other” (actually, the Princeton Theological Seminary says that this may not be an exact quote, although he did “occasionally make similar remarks”). Although I think Christians, especially Catholics, need more than just the Bible in one hand—perhaps the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church—his basic point resonates deeply with me: we must be informed about both our faith and current issues in order to live as Christians “in the world,” as Barth says, and as the Church calls us (cf. Gaudium et Spes).

I begin with this vignette because I think it captures well the spirit of the 2013 Feast of St. Francis (October 4) event being organized by the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change, where I serve as Project Manager. The program, Melting Ice, Mending Creation: a Catholic Approach to Climate Change, utilizes a narrated Prezi presentation to explore climate change through the lens of worldwide glacial melt and using two separate but related resources: a report on the topic by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (PAS) and a TED talk by Dr. James Balog, director of the videographic Extreme Ice Survey. In essence, the project approaches the question of climate change “with a Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other.” The PAS report presents the Church’s scientific and theological understanding of glacial melt caused by climate change, while Dr. Balog shares a scientist’s compelling scientific and visual evidence of the anthropogenic phenomenon.

In order to help facilitate the presentation of this year’s Feast of St. Francis event, the Coalition has published three tailored education kits with facilitator’s guides: one for parishes, one for colleges/universities, and one for youth/young adults. The kits are available for free download on the Coalition’s website along with promotional materials to help communities publicize their event. Although the resources are all free, organizers are encouraged to register events ahead of time in order to receive the free prayer cards that are part of the presentation.

In his book-length interview in 2010 titled Light of the World: The Pope, the Church, and the Signs of the Times, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI said that climate change “is a challenge for the Church.  She not only has a major responsibility; she is, I would say, often the only hope.  For she is so close to people’s consciences that she can move them to particular acts of self-denial and can inculcate basic attitudes in souls.”  In order for the Church to do this, however, it is first necessary that Catholics understand the gravity of the climate crisis. With the PAS report in one hand and dramatic visual evidence of human-caused climate change in the other, the 2013 Feast of St. Francis event sponsored by the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change hopes to help Catholics recognize climate change as an urgent moral issue and highlight the Church’s many theological and practical resources that can help people of faith and goodwill to mitigate this pressing challenge.