Leader of Catholic Relief Services, Carolyn Woo, Bringing Message of Climate Urgency to SCU Oct. 15
President of agency that reaches nearly 100 million people in 93 countries will bring the message that “I am climate change. I am the cause. I am the solution.”
Deborah Lohse
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Oct. 9, 2015 — In America, the impact of climate change can be fairly abstract: warmer winters, occasional extreme storms or unusual weather. But for the people helped by Catholic Relief Services, climate change is real -- and often devastating. Changing rainfall in west and east Africa or rising temperatures in Latin America destroy crops that once provided livelihoods. Rising water levels displace populations in Bangladesh. Unprecedented killer storms destroy communities in the Philippines. For them, climate change is all too real.
On Oct. 15, Carolyn Woo, president and CEO of the international humanitarian agency Catholic Relief Services, will talk to Santa Clara University about our planet's environmental problems from the vantage point of an agency that is active in 93 countries, reaching nearly 100 million people. Dr. Woo’s talk will be entitled “I am climate change. I am the cause. I am the solution.”
Her visit comes only months after the historic encyclical, or teaching document, from Pope Francis, which calls for a conversion of heart to cherish the earth as God's creation, and honor the dignity of people above profits, technology, and globalization. Dr. Woo spoke at the Vatican on the occasion of the launching of that encyclical, entitled Laudato Si', or “Praised Be.”
The event is part of Santa Clara University’s Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education Bannan Institute Lectures. It will be held Thursday, October 15, 2015, from 4 to 5:15 p.m. in the St. Clare Room of the Harrington Learning Commons. Attendees can RSVP here, and a livestream will be available here.
About the Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education
The Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education promotes and enhances the distinctively Jesuit, Catholic tradition of education at Santa Clara University, with a view to serving students, faculty, staff, and through them the larger community, both local and global. The vision of the Ignatian Center is to be recognized throughout Silicon Valley as providing leadership for the integration of faith, justice, and the intellectual life. The Center supports four signature programs: Bannan Institutes, which are yearlong thematic programs engaging contemporary religious, cultural, and theological issues; community-based learning programs connecting students, the classroom, and the local community; immersion programs engaging students, faculty, and staff with the realities of communities locally, nationally and globally; and sharing the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius with the broader Santa Clara Community. More information is available atwww.scu.edu/ignatiancenter/.
The Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education promotes and enhances the distinctively Jesuit, Catholic tradition of education at Santa Clara University, with a view to serving students, faculty, staff, and through them the larger community, both local and global. The vision of the Ignatian Center is to be recognized throughout Silicon Valley as providing leadership for the integration of faith, justice, and the intellectual life. The Center supports four signature programs: Bannan Institutes, which are yearlong thematic programs engaging contemporary religious, cultural, and theological issues; community-based learning programs connecting students, the classroom, and the local community; immersion programs engaging students, faculty, and staff with the realities of communities locally, nationally and globally; and sharing the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius with the broader Santa Clara Community. More information is available atwww.scu.edu/ignatiancenter/.
About Catholic Relief Services
Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. The agency alleviates suffering and provides assistance to people in need in more than 100 countries, without regard to race, religion or nationality. CRS’ relief and development work is accomplished through programs of emergency response, HIV, health, agriculture, education, microfinance and peacebuilding. For more information, please visit crs.orgor crsespanol.org.
Media Contact
Deborah Lohse | SCU Media Relations | dlohse@scu.edu | 408-554-5121
Deborah Lohse | SCU Media Relations | dlohse@scu.edu | 408-554-5121
Oct 9, 2015