April 15, 2015

Watertown – Dr. Gerry Gacioch, the New York State ambassador for the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change, will lead a presentation on “Faith Communities and Climate” April 19 from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 in the Hearthside Hospitality Center at the Sisters of St. Joseph Motherhouse

The event is sponsored by the diocesan Council of Consecrated Religious and the Watertown Faith and Ecology Group.

Dr. Gacioch, is chief of cardiology at the Rochester Heart Institute at Rochester General Hospital.  He helped found the Care of God’s Creation Ministry at Church of the Transfiguration in Pittsford, N.Y., and hopes to help Catholics learn about Catholic Social Teaching with its particular commitments to care for God’s Creation and exercise an option for the poor.

He belongs to Doctors Without Borders and has volunteered in several developing countries.

Dr. Gacioch is one of 19 ambassadors available to offer presentations on the moral implications of climate change consistent with Catholic teaching. Pope Benedict XVI discussed the teaching in his World Day of Peace Message of 2010, If You Want to Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation. The U.S. Catholic bishops also reflected on the subject in their statement, Global Climate Change: A Plea for Dialogue, Prudence and the Common Good.
The Catholic Climate Covenant, the organization responsible for the ambassador program, plays a pivotal role in the U.S. Catholic response to the enormous challenge of climate change.

The Catholic Climate Covenant and its many partners, including the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), has developed strategies  to foster the spiritual formation and education of Catholics, to create resources, programs and projects that engage youth, families and parishioners, and to spur action that leads to public policy change at local, national and international levels.

The Catholic Climate Ambassador program is intended to accelerate these efforts by raising the awareness of Catholics around the U.S. who worship in our parishes, learn in our schools and lead our many ministries.

The ambassadors are charged with promoting the Catholic Climate Covenant: The St. Francis Pledge to Care for Creation and the Poor.