Catholic Creation Care
Tools for Parish Leaders
Pastoral Planning

Leadership & Creation Care Teams

Use the tools on this page to gather a leadership team, learn about the challenge together, and put a plan in place to lead your community.

Creation care should not be addressed in one-time events and forgotten. Nor should it be limited to initial formation. It is part of our ongoing call to be disciples, lived out in action. The best way to keep the message of Laudato Si' at the forefront is to assign some dedicated leaders to a creation care team that will champion these efforts.

Video Courses for Leaders

Greening Your Church Video Mini-Course

Ten Proven Steps to Inspire Your Faith Community Towards Sustainability

This course is the perfect place to start when considering how your church can better care for God's creation. It offers answers to the questions: Where should I start? When should I act? Who are my allies? What resources are available?

At the end of this course, the participants will be able to:

  • inspire one's community to act for Creation care;
  • make a plan to begin an ecological transition of the parish;
  • mobilize other parishioners to form a green committee.
By Norman Lévesque • 27 minutes • Sold per-parish as downloadable, sharable resource. • FREE!

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Developing Creation Care Ministry Video Course

This in-depth course will help you learn about church teaching on creation care and what concrete strategies will work best to develop your own parish ministry. Norman Lévesque, founder of the Green Churches Network, shares from his extensive experience supporting parishes in this work.

At the end of this course, the participants will be able to:

  • inspire your community to take action for the care of Creation
  • cite references of Christian spirituality about ecology
  • promote environmental education in a church context
  • design various activities about Creation care
  • identify the church's resistance to the environment
  • mobilize other members of the community to form a green committee
By Norman Lévesque • Approximately 4-6 hours • Sold per-parish as downloadable, sharable resource. • $20

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Leader Tools

Open Hearts, Open Minds

Working Together on Creation Care even when Some Disagree

This eResource kit will help you move past divisive either/or politics and toward deeper parish conversations on creation care.

Pope Francis is asking all of us to become activists for environmental justice. He wants us to talk together locally, devise local and national solutions, and work to change the systems that keep people poor, endanger creation, and lead to the breakdown of the gifts which God has given us "to till and keep."

By Bill Huebsch • Downloadable, reproducible eResource • $9/parish

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Organizations and Groups

Creation Care Team @ Catholic Climate Covenant

Utilize the Creation Care Team program and other resources from the Catholic Climate Covenant. The program includes:

  • A weekly email with alerts, tips, and resources.
  • Access to conference calls and webinars to train and inspire you.
  • An exclusive Facebook group, where you can share resources and your successes and challenges.
  • A resource library with toolkits, guides, and how-to materials.

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Laudato Si' Action Platform

This site "empowers the universal Church and all people of good will to respond to Laudato Si’." It is organized around seven goals and seven sectors (including families and parishes/dioceses), and it encourages you to register on behalf of an organization or family. The site was designed by the Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

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We're All Part of God's Plan(et)

This site offers a United States focus for Laudato Si' Action Platform efforts.

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Videos

Starting a Creation Care Team

A discussion of challenges starting a new team as well as some examples of successful CCT projects and programs. Plus a review of many CCT resources available from Catholic Climate Covenant to help get a team started, including meeting materials and sustainable facility suggestions, as well a how to advocate for faith-informed climate policies.

Tools for Building Creation Care Team Momentum

This presentation from the Citizen Climate Lobby will coach you on what to do next and how to promote political initiatives within the context of Care for Creation. Here are some ideas and resources regarding messaging, activities, educational events, and promotion that have worked to engage parishioners.

Reaching Out to Catholic Audiences

Learn about Catholic presentation strategies, and get an initial taste of the Pope’s Action Platform to begin a 7-year journey to total sustainability in the spirit of Laudato Si’. Roger Ingersoll will discuss learnings related to over 20 presentations to parish communities, Catholic and secular colleges, a seminary, and other faiths (often to very conservative-leaning audiences). Our second presenter, Juan Rios, will cover effective outreach to Catholic Latinos, a recent focus area of the Catholic Action Team. Our final speaker Sr Ricca Dimalibot of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, will discuss climate advocacy within her religious community including initiation of the Pope Francis' 7 year journey to an integral ecology.

Practical and Proven Ways to Inspire Creation Care in Your Community

Learn how the Dioceses of Toledo and Burlington initiated and inspired Care for Creation activities and conferences around Laudato Si’, successful programs and activities in Catholic schools and parishes that sustain interest and actions, and proven approaches to encourage and motivate fellow parishioners to participate in creation care efforts.