Catholic Environmental Service Projects

As the U.S. Bishops have written, social ministry is at the core of parish life, not a peripheral option. Catholic parishes and dioceses are responding to God’s call to serve their neighbors and care for the earth through many and varied environmental justice projects.

Rooted in scripture, nourished by worship and prayer, guided by Catholic social teaching, these activities have included:

• Support for small farmers, agricultural workers, economically stressed rural communities, and local food systems.
• Jobs programs, neighborhood clean-ups, community gardens, and other efforts to improve the economic and environmental circumstances of low-income urban residents.
• International assistance that both relieves poverty and contributes to the health of the environment for people in the developing world.

Care for God’s creation has been expressed in the restoration and preservation of woodlands, wetlands, prairies and savannas by religious communities such as St. Benedict Center in Madison, Wisconsin, and the Marianist Environmental Education Center in Dayton, Ohio.

The Church also promotes environmental justice and stewardship through major national agencies:

• National Catholic Rural Life Conference serves as a catalyst and convener for social justice in food, agriculture and rural environmental issues.
• Campaign for Human Development supports community-controlled self-help organizations of the poor, including grass-roots organizations struggling for environmental justice.
• Catholic Relief Services provides international relief assistance that incorporates environmentally sound approaches to economic development.
• National Council of Catholic Women mobilizes Catholic women’s organizations to care for the environment through its “Earth in Our Hands” program.

Find resources for service and stewardship projects by Catholic and other congregations.

This religious community finds its calling in caring for struggling farmers, rural communities, and the land.