This Monday from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saint Mary’s Center for Faith Action and Ministry (CFAM) hosted its monthly “Discussion and Donuts” meeting in the student government lounge. The discussion began with donuts, dried apples, cookies and spiced apple cider. Before the discussion began, students were given a few minutes to journal their thoughts and feelings on climate change.
The discussion was hosted by two student advocacy interns at CFAM, Jeanett Ochoa and Amelia Moroney. The “Discussion and Donuts” series attempts to help students become more comfortable talking about difficult political topics, Moroney notes.
“For this one specifically, we were just hoping to get students curious about climate legislation and how they fit into the climate justice narrative,” Moroney said.
Moroney recounted that the discussion went well.
“I thought we had a lot of really great people with a lot of diverse backgrounds and knowledge about climate change and I think it sparked a really unique conversation that we wouldn't have had with different people,” Moroney said.
Moroney and Ochoa both emphasized the importance of caring about the environment as a Catholic institution.
“With Saint Mary’s being a Catholic [institution], we do adhere a lot to the Catholic social teaching. So Laudato Si’ just came out not too long ago, and that does a great [job] of explaining how climate change and care for the environment is a part of Catholicism, not saying that you need to be Catholic and also believe in climate change, just it's a practice today,” Ochoa said.
Laudato Si’ was a book written by Pope Francis that came out in 2015 that called for Catholics to take care of the environment.
“[Climate change is] really important to talk about, especially because we’re students and we’re kind of finding our own place in the world, and we're like doing under the charism of the Holy Cross, I think it's really important to address the needs of our community and I think right now, that is about addressing climate change and trying to find justice in that,” Moroney said.
Ochoa notes that October has been a month that has focused a lot on the environment and climate issues.
“Specifically, after a lot of dialog between the advocacy interns and Dr. Sarah Neitz, we concluded that climate change would be a good discussion to have, especially right after we had Francis fest earlier in October, and just this month of October, [CFAM has] just been focusing a lot on climate issues, and so we just thought it would fit was our office’s current vision and focus of the month,” Ochoa said.
Next month CFAM is planning to hold a discussion about the election.
“Our next event, which is going to be on November 18, is going to be an election recap. So, it’s just going to be a space where students can come and discuss how they're feeling about the future of the US, regardless of who's going to be the president. We want to provide a space where people can come and express their emotions and just in a very civil manner, respectful dialogue,” Ochoa said.
