St. Bartholomew Catholic Church will mark Earth Day weekend with a free courtyard information fair between today’s and Sunday’s Masses and a free choral concert at 6 p.m. Monday.
In case of rain, the information fair will be moved to the parish hall in the lower level of the church at 1306 27th St. in Columbus. Masses, which last about an hour, are at 5 p.m. today and Sunday at 8 a.m., 11 a.m., and 1 p.m.
The events, meant to build ecological awareness and to promote responsible environmental stewardship, are efforts of the church’s Care For Our Common Home Ministry. That is under the work of the church’s Peace and Justice Ministry.
“It just makes common sense for us to realize that we cannot use up all our available resources,” said Suzie Shaw, a member of the Care For Our Common Home Ministry team. “We must realize that our natural resources are finite.”
The information fair will include booths from more than 10 area organizations such as the Winding Waters Group Sierra Club, the Sycamore Land Trust, Energy Matters Community Coalition and others.
The Care for Our Common Home ministry at St. Bartholomew began after a parish Lenten book study in 2021 of Pope Francis’s 2015 encyclical “Laudato Si (Latin meaning Praise Be to You): On Care for Our Common Home.” In his papal letter, Pope Francis wrote, “I urgently appeal for a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet. We need a conversation which includes everyone, since the environmental challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots concern and affect us all.”
The Indianapolis Archdiocese, of which St. Bartholomew is a member, has officially signed onto the Laudato Si’ Action Platform, a global initiative kicking off a seven-year effort to increase the church’s ecological practices.
One of St. Bartholomew’s first public Earth Day-themed programs unfolded in 2022 when members opened a pollinator garden in front of the church.
Bogdan Minut, St. Bartholomew’s director of music, mentioned that the Pope’s focus is far beyond elements such as the air, water and soil, though it includes such. The concert includes the St. Bartholomew Choir and also its Children’s choir under Minut’s direction, plus the Fairlawn Presbyterian Chancel Choir. That group is under the direction of Mirabella Minut, Fairlawn’s music director who is married to Bogdan Minut.
“This (musical) program encourages audiences to hear and respond to both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor, reminding us all of the importance to care for the environment and one another,” Bogdan Minut said.
He explained further.
“It’s not just about the natural environment,” Bogdan Minut said. “Pope Francis’ perspective about all this is very broad and generous. He sees the approach to dealing with climate crisis is forming an approach to human crisis. He sees an interconnection that we sometimes can tend to forget.
“We can focus on things like electric cars and solar panels, but amid all that, we cannot forget the poor and the marginalized — and how the implementation of these technologies could affect them.”
He referred to the impact of environmental adjustments on indigenous people, for instance. He also referred to disasters ranging from severe droughts to wildfires and the impact on the already-struggling.
