"The sisters have been developing ecological awareness since the 1980s," said Turgi, who is a Holy Cross sister. "In the last four or five years, it has really taken off."<\/p>\n
She said that as the sisters worked on social justice, they began to feel that as long as the Earth is degraded, they weren’t going to really get anywhere.<\/p>\n
"If there is no Earth, there is no social justice," she said.<\/p>\n
"You do find the poorest people live in the most ecologically degraded part of countries," Oestreich said.<\/p>\n
"We also found it was part of our spirituality," she continued. " ‘Save the rain forest’ is also ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ The Earth is part of what is loved and cherished by God."<\/p>\n
The justice work of the Holy Cross congregations — which include the Sisters of the Holy Cross, the Brothers of the Holy Cross and the Canadian order the Sisters of Holy Cross and the Marianites of Holy Cross, has been reorganized around the Earth Charter.<\/p>\n
The Sisters of the Holy Cross signed the charter in April 2000, and the justice office endorsed it with approval of the other congregations later. <\/p>\n
Turgi remembers the congregation seeing the turkey vultures who live near the college flying around outside the Church of Our Lady of Loretto on the Saint Mary’s College campus while the charter was being signed inside. She said it was almost as though they knew and approved.<\/p>\n
That document, which covers social and environmental justice issues, grew out of an effort started by the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development.<\/p>\n
Turgi and Oestreich did a lot of research before writing educational materials to send to other congregations.<\/p>\n
They also began to integrate ecological concerns into their prayer and rituals.<\/p>\n
"We decided if we were going to educate, we needed to do it not just with words but through prayer and ritual too," Turgi said.<\/p>\n
During Lent last year, the Saint Mary’s campus did the traditional Stations of the Cross and a new Earth Stations.<\/p>\n
Turgi said the Earth Stations recalled the suffering of the Earth as the body of God. [Source<\/a>]<\/p>\n