September 26, 2024 at 7:00 a.m.
BUILDING A MOVEMENT
Siena College is stepping up to fight climate change.
On Oct. 10-11, Siena will host “Earth’s Cry, Humanity’s Call: A Symposium on Integral Ecology.” The symposium will offer in-person and livestreamed talks and presentations addressing the global realities of the climate crisis, as well as advocacy groups and solutions in place to support a cleaner, healthier planet.
The event is organized by Siena’s Laudato Si’ Center for Integral Ecology. The center opened its doors in January 2023 and is led by Director Brother Michael Perry, OFM, who hopes that Siena and the Laudato Si’ Center can help spread the need to care for God’s creation both locally and globally.
“Everything has been created by someone who loved this world into being and someone who calls us to exercise the same care and love and responsibility that God exercises from the very beginning,” Brother Perry told The Evangelist. To “become an ecological society, it’s about transforming our minds and hearts in this transverse process St. Francis talks about.”
“We are doing such irreparable harm to God’s creation, and that has profound moral, religious and spiritual implications,” said Brother Jacek Orzechowski, OFM, associate director of the Laudato Si’ Center. Humans need “to realize what we’re doing and then rebuild, restore.”
The center’s work is already reaching great heights: In April, Siena faculty were granted a brief meeting with Pope Francis to share the work being done at the Laudato Si’ Center, named after Pope Francis’ encyclical about caring for our planet’s environment.
At the symposium, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres will provide a keynote address specifically recorded for the event.
“I’m still pinching myself over it because it is such a special thing,” said Brother Jimmy Kernan, assistant director of the center. Guterres “doesn’t talk with colleges or universities, so for us to have the privilege of being in that space and for him to recognize what’s being done here and … that what is being done at Siena is important, that’s surreal for me still.”
The symposium kicks off on Thursday, Oct. 10, at the Marcelle Athletic Center for Siena students and the public to visit display booths of organizations with information about advocacy, solidarity-inspired action, promotion of eco-literacy/restorative justice, transition to clean, renewable energy and the corresponding, growing job sector.
“I think a lot of Siena students are interested in making a difference, but the question is usually how,” said Emma Andros, a junior and environmental studies major at Siena. “I think the symposium is a great way for students to hear about ways to get involved. There are a lot of resources … but if you are not actively searching it out, it’s hard to stumble across it. I think this is a good event to bring together us students who will be facing future climate problems and environmental changes.”
Other speakers will include Basil Seggos, former N.Y. State Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation; Dr. James McDonald, Health Commissioner for the New York State Department of Health; Scott Kellogg, Educational Director of the Radix Ecological Sustainability Center; and faculty and students from Siena and other colleges.
Andros added that gathering knowledge from experts in the field can shine some hope on what can typically feel like a “very gloomy problem.”
“I feel like an event that brings in such a wide audience has the potential to inspire people that go to it, and will create a sense of community, especially among the students, that we’re not in the fight alone.”
“This is not about a symposium; it’s about building a movement,” added Brother Perry, “one that is holistic and spiritual and deeply human, but natural and getting us back in touch from that which we have emerged from.
“This symposium is about eco-hope. It’s about building in people a confidence that it’s not hopeless, that it’s going to take us working together and a lot of goodwill (but) we can tackle this problem together.”
To register for the symposium, visit sienaevents.ludus.com/index.php. For the full itinerary, visit https://www.siena.edu/centers-institutes/laudato-si/earths-cry-humanitys-call-a-symposium-on-integral-ecology/.
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