quoting the Holy Father<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cWhat will be our answer?\u201d<\/p>\n
The attendees came from across the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, but also from Harrisburg and even Chicago. They took part in a series of talks, panel discussions, and question-and-answer sessions while encountering fellow faith-centered ecological organizations with whom they could partner and take action.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/EcoPhilly-Jay-Sorgi-415x311.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Joshua van Cleef, director of the Office of Peace and Justice for the Catholic Diocese of Lexington, Kentucky, speaks during EcoPhilly\u2019s annual \u201cFrom Hope to Action\u201d conference May 9 at Villanova University. (Photo by Jay Sorgi)<\/p>\n
Joshua van Cleef, the director of the Office of Peace and Justice for the Catholic Diocese of Lexington, Kentucky, spoke to the ecological urgency of our times.<\/p>\n
He cited a study co-created by the Vatican and the Stockholm Environmental Institute in 2023 called \u201cOur Common Home,\u201d which revealed the future effect of the ecological damage being caused at this time.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy 2050, we will need three planets to support us if we don\u2019t make a drastic shift in what we consume and what we throw away,\u201d van Cleef said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t have three planets. The environmental crisis is measurable. It\u2019s urgent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leaders who spoke at the conference said taking immediate action to care for the world God gave us can originate from the personal, the parish and even diocesan level.<\/p>\n
Van Cleef showed that an entire diocese can successfully commit to greater ecological stewardship simply by taking steps that can not only help steward the environment, but also create financial savings to reallocate for other ministries.<\/p>\n
He said the Lexington Diocese had two goals, the first of which the diocese already accomplished in creating and implementing Laudato Si\u2019 action plans for environmental stewardship. The effort involved dedicated parish teams creating ecology ministries.<\/p>\n
Van Cleef added that the second goal of Lexington Bishop John Stowe is in process: the diocese reaching net zero effect on climate pollution by 2030.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw people join into this work that had never been active in the Church,\u201d van Cleef said. \u201cWe had scientists, we had solar folks; people just started jumping up. It wasn\u2019t the usual people on parish councils. And the pastors said, \u2018We can do this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Numerous Philadelphia-area parishes are already taking such steps at the local level, including Our Mother of Good Counsel in Bryn Mawr where numerous parishioners along with Augustinian Father Joseph Mostardi leading action steps from composting to greater use of LED lights and exploring the possible installation of solar panels.<\/p>\n
Sometimes those steps happen from grass-roots efforts like those championed by parishioners like Christina Puntel of St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Philadelphia\u2019s Germantown section. She organized children to bring banana peels to Mass.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a bucket of compost, and I said this is what\u2019s going to happen to these banana peels in six months,\u201d she said. \u201cThat compost will be able to grow more plants. So this is the cycle of life, decay, and rebirth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Personal change, leaders said, can come from actions as small as aligning our purchasing power. EcoPhilly Project Manager and Education Committee Chair Aaron Lemma said Catholics need to focus their buying decisions on things that aren\u2019t wasteful.<\/p>\n
One example is to reconsider purchasing and using a nonbiodegradable substance like polystyrene foam. Its negative impact on human health, he suggested, doesn\u2019t honor God.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do we just make those small changes to do more for the environment, for each other?\u201d Lemma asked.<\/p>\n
Catholic ecology advocates held sessions with students about ways they can be individually engaged in day-to-day practices that create less negative impact on what Pope Francis described as \u201ca fragile world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another panel discussion engaged attendees on the effects of artificial intelligence (AI), its dangers as communicated by Pope Leo XIV, and ways to control that technology.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/EcoPhilly-Jay-Sorgi-3-415x311.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Nicholas Collura, co-founder and board chair of EcoPhilly, addresses attendees during the \u201cFrom Hope to Action\u201d conference May 9 at Villanova University. (Photo by Jay Sorgi)<\/p>\n
Collura added that EcoPhilly is taking active steps within the missionary hubs that are part of the current Trust and Hope initiative<\/a> of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, showcasing that grassroots commitment is growing locally.<\/p>\nHe summed up the message of the day, linking the conference\u2019s title \u201cFrom Hope to Action\u201d to the challenge issued by Pope Leo and Pope Francis.<\/p>\n
Collura said the day called for spiritual conversion in which people move from gathering data and information about our environment to taking actions in care for God\u2019s creation.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow can we connect the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor,\u201d he said, \u201cnot through discourse, but by our lived presence in action as converted people?\u201d<\/p>\n
Van Cleef added the words of Pope Francis in \u201cLaudato Si\u2019,\u201d summarizing why he believes the Church must adopt stronger stewardship of the environment. He paraphrased Psalm 24, which references how all of creation belongs to God, the true owner of the earth.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s our task?\u201d van Cleef said. \u201cWe\u2019re not owners. Our job is to till and keep what belongs to God.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Jay Sorgi \u2022 Posted May 14, 2026 Pope Leo XIV, a Villanova University alumnus, offered a challenge…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":797198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5132],"tags":[237624,5229,237625,19494,325155,325156,1448,2830,1311,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,95022],"class_list":["post-797197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-aaron-lemma","tag-america","tag-ecophilly","tag-jay-sorgi","tag-laudato-si","tag-nicholas-collura","tag-pa","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-villanova-university"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116576308548205251","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=797197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}