A year after the martyrdom of Sister Dorothy Stang in 2005 in Boa Esperança, Pará, Brazil, the Stang family, during their customary family reunion, dedicated a large stone with a bronze plaque in Dorothy’s memory at Calvary Cemetery in Dayton, Ohio. On this 2021 Earth Day the stone and plaque were relocated to the newly named Sister Dorothy Stang Way. Sister Judi Clemens joined Dot’s sister, Barbara Richardson, and an intergenerational gathering of Stang family members for the dedication.

This year the Holy Father has invited all Catholics across the globe to commit to a 7 year process of planning and implementing ways we can be in right relationship with each other and the earth. This program is the Laudato Si’ Action Platform. The Platform has come out of the Dicastery for Integral Human Development at the Vatican. There 7 targeted groups with 7 goals over a 7 year commitment. Your Catholic parish and Catholic school are called to this along with 5 other identified groups. Ask your pastor or principal if they are engaging in this process. In the meantime, I hope you will join me in saying this prayer from Pope Francis during the 6th Anniversary year of Laudato Si’.

As with so many things, its roots were in casual conversation. “What would a r...