On September 16 Bishop Alberto Rojas took a morning hike through Oak Glen Preserve to celebrate the Season of Creation (Sept. 1 – Oct. 4) and share his thoughts on the presence of God in nature, the responsibility of human beings to care for the planet and the emphasis Pope Francis has placed on the subject. A video of the day was released on September 29.
“Come up to the forests, come up to the mountains, see nature,” Bishop Rojas implores in the video. “Connect with the One who made you.”
The 909-acred Oak Glen Preserve, located at 5,024 feet in the San Bernardino National Forest, offers natural environs including a botanical garden, apple farm, coniferous forest, deciduous forest, and duck pond. He stopped often as he hiked to get a closer look at the different plants, berries and flowers that lined the trail. Passing a group of children who were on a field trip sparked his thoughts on the important role that youth and young adults have in caring for the environment.
“We need more education, beginning with our little ones, that if we don’t take care of nature we are killing ourselves in a way,” Bishop Rojas said.
He spoke with anticipation about Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation, Laudete Deum, set for release Oct. 4, that is described as a sequel to his 2015 Encyclical Laudato Si’. The Holy Father will likely continue to emphasize the interdependence of all the life forms created by God, Bishope Rojas speculated.
“He speaks about ecology, not only as nature, but ecology in an integral way, which includes all of us,” Bishop Rojas said.
Since becoming Ordinary Bishop of the Diocese in December of 2020, Bishop Rojas has emphasized the importance of environmental stewardship and following Pope Francis’ guidelines set forth in Laudato Si’. He dedicated a new solar array at St. Junipero Serra House of Formation and Christ the Redeemer Parish in October of 2021. Last April, the Bishop celebrated the Diocese’s first-ever Earth Day Mass at St. Kateri Tekakwitha Parish in Beaumont.
From Inland Catholic Byte
While I do believe everyone should be keeping nature clean and unpolluted, and enjoying hikes in the forest and mountains, I am not a fan of the naturalism / hippie attitudes that usually come with Earth Day-programs and “Creation Care” in the US Catholic scene.
I agree. I’m very skeptical about those sorts of people.
The people who actually live near Lake Tahoe have been complaining that they cannot get back to their homes from work or shopping for groceries now because of all the tourists coming there causing so much traffic. When we were much younger, our family camped out there to get away from it all, only to have the noise from the people near us, who were having a big party with loud music, ruin it all. We then rented cabins and walk most everywhere.
We need more education, beginning with the souls of our little ones, Forget nature, our souls are far more important than nature. Worshipping nature is pagan.
But being dense cuts all ways.
No mention of God or Jesus in the article. Rojas came close with the “One who created you”. He seems to promote Nature over God.
My belief is that St PJPII would support these views. He was a champion for life and this is one of a myriad of Pro-Life issues that we need to consider. It certainly isn’t ahead of opposing abortion, assisted suicide, or euthanasia, but IMO it has a chair at the Pro-Life table.
I’m sorry, but …
Caring for our earth is not pagan, it is about as Catholic as possible. The Bible tells us to care for our earth. St. Francis taught us to pray to Sister Earth, our mother. Read the Canticle to Creation. We can care for our earth and our souls at the same time. Pray and meditate while we hike, or sit by a lake, or clean trash from the highway. Life and salvation are not a zero-sum endeavor.
Caring for the earth the way the environmentalists want is decidedly pagan. Environmentalists want depopulation. God said, “Be fruitful and multiply.” Environmentalists abhor fossil fuels. God said, “Fill the earth and subdue it.”
There is Catholic environmental stewardship, but that’s not what global climate alarmist environmentalism is about.
And Democrats are of the alarmist variety.
“We need more education, beginning with our little ones, that if we don’t take care of nature we are killing ourselves in a way,” Bishop Rojas said.
Beyond the glaring problem of Bishop Rojas’ home country of Mexico as the worst mass polluter in the world behind China, pouring out raw sewage and metals toxic waste into our oceans, etc., I intensely dislike the straw man fallacy present whenever the climate is emphasized in a way that always associates one’s love of nature with having to stridently defend it against one fellow human being who is simply trying to raise a family and go to church and work. Why did Rojas have to go there? Because he knows the Pope’s #1 West Coast secret agent Cardinal McIlroy is right down the road and listening to every word he says. (Rojas is likely the next AB of Los Angeles.) Here is the liberal’s argument: You do not talk about climate change enough. You do not walk lock-step on the climate and beat your breast in repentance with caring people like us.Therefore, you don’t like the outdoors, you are wasteful, you kill others, you want to destroy the natural world, etc. It is a pernicious attack against reason and humanity. And, many of our RC episcopal leaders are leading the charge.
El Padre: Alas, you may be right.
Bishops preaching respect for nature seem always to be addressing the common people who are the least responsible for its destruction. Why not preach to those greatly responsible for nature’s use and abuse – the governments of nations, huge industrialists, high tech developers of power sources, powerful land movers, etc. and tell them about God?
Little children already love nature naturally, so there’s little need to tell them we will die if we don’t protect the environment. Instead, bishops should preach Jesus to them. Tell children Jesus’ story about the birds in the air that neither plant nor harvest, yet our heavenly Father feeds them. And the wildflowers that neither make nice clothes nor wear them, yet are more elegant than Nancy Pelosi’s fashionable haircuts, dresses and four-inch heels. Assure them, just as God cares for the birds and flowers, He loves children much, much more. Inspire them to develop faith in God, faith even as small as a mustard seed that can uproot a mulberry tree and plant it in the ocean. Children love such imageries, especially when oriented toward God. Beat the story-telling drag queens in their own game!
But to the big industrialists, billionaire businessmen and technocrats, bishops should teach justice. Respect for our natural resources means not decimating them to make themselves even richer. it is the core of the Seventh Commandment: Thou shalt not steal what should belong to future generations. Leave some for the children, and be aware that nature is not a god to be worshiped. Nature belongs to God.
While I like the idea of a bishop walking through a forest, poetically hugging a tree like ex-FBI boss James Comey, and enjoying the sights, it leaves a lot to be desired. But that’s just me. Sorry.
I’m grateful that the season of creation is over. Now I won’t have to be subjected to sanctimonious announcements and bulletin blurbs about growing my own vegetables, walking instead of driving, and reducing my use of plastic until September of next year.
O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder, consider all the worlds thy hands have made! I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, thy power throughout the universe displayed.
God truly has made a beautiful world. It is fitting praise to His works that we should be in nature.
Connect with the one, who made you, through the Eucharist
Dualism of body and soul has been rejected by Catholic Church as heresy.
Everything that your Churches are built from is a gift of God through nature.
Everything that sustains you is God’s gift through nature.
I am not an environmentalist so I am only reacting to the spiritual error in the comments.
Careful he doesn’t trail Red Francis off the end of the Flat Earth.
Although I agree with you most of the time, Peggy, I disagree with you about this article. There is a difference between admiring what God has created and using it in the right way and worshipping the creation.
One of my favorite Bible verses was on a lovely stained-glass window in the chapel of a Catholic hospital where I was receiving treatment for cancer. It is: …..”the tree of life, bearing twelve fruits, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves are for the healing of the nations.” Revelation 22: 2.
I have and have had plants in my garden that heal- aloe vera is one.