The vision is to create an inspiring carbon-neutral community that enhances the future of Seattle's First Hill neighbourhood while also supporting the mission of the Catholic Church.

"Creatively thinking about how we can better use our properties to achieve the mission of the church is exactly what we need to do as good stewards of God's gifts," Archbishop Paul D Etienne said in a March 29 statement announcing the sale.

"This significant project is an investment in the First Hill community and in our future, ensuring we can continue the good work of the Catholic Church," he said.

The sales are an example of the archdiocese's Catholic Real Estate Initiative which was announced last November.

The initiative focuses on redeveloping underused church buildings and land so resources and energy can be directed toward the church's mission.

Global developer Westbank and its affiliate Creative Energy have partnered with Swedish Health Services on the project to redevelop the site.

Westbank plans to redevelop the properties over the next decade. They will create a series of high-rise residential buildings with more than 1,300 dwellings. These will be connected to an environmentally friendly energy system that significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

Swedish Health Services will divert excess heat from its First Hill Campus to an energy sharing platform as part of the project. Through this platform, Swedish will be able to share excess heat. This will become a source of heating for other buildings connected to the platform.

This heat exchange system will dramatically reduce the overall carbon footprint of the neighbourhood.

"We believe this project demonstrates the environmental values outlined in Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Si'. It also represents a strong commitment to the future of the First Hill neighbourhood," said a letter to archdiocesan Catholics signed by Archbishop Etienne, Father Michael G Ryan (pastor of St James Cathedral) and Joe Schick, the archdiocese's chief financial officer.

The proceeds from selling the ageing buildings, which are costly to maintain, will provide increased stability for the local church "so that we may continue to share Christ with others through outreach, evangelisation and key ministries," the letter stated.

Sources

UCA News

Business Wire

"A selfish and boundless thirst for power and material prosperity leads both to the misuse of available natural resources and to the exclusion of the weak and disadvantaged," he said on Friday.

Francis delivered the fifth papal address to the United Nations and the first to open its General Assembly session.

In a speech without direct mention of climate change, Francis pressed for "reclaiming the environment".

The Pope called the passage of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, formally adopted after his speech, "an important sign of hope".

The 17 goals and 169 targets seek to end poverty, promote education and gender equality, secure access to water and sustainable energy, and to address climate change.

The best and simplest measures to implementing the goals, Francis said, will be "effective, practical and immediate access" for all to housing, dignified work, adequate food and drinking water, education, and religious and spiritual freedom.

"These pillars of integral human development have a common foundation, which is the right to life and, more generally, what we could call the right to existence of human nature itself," the Pope said.

Pope Francis also urged for an end to nuclear weapons, war and a culture of exclusion, and for a recognition of the moral law in human nature, one that differentiates between man and woman and has "absolute respect for life in all its stages and dimensions".

Francis also said that nature had rights.

"It must be stated that a true ‘right of the environment' does exist," Francis said.

It exists for two reasons, first because human beings are part of the environment, and second, every creature has intrinsic value in its existence, beauty and interdependence.

An attack on the environment was an assault on the rights and living conditions of the most vulnerable, he said.

He called for governments to do everything possible to provide conditions that allow for people to create and support families, which are "the primary cell of any social development".

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• The Guardian
• Sydney Morning Herald
• Full text of Pope Francis's address to the United Nations
• Image: Catholic Herald

Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo said the Church will continue to collaborate with the United Nations on any joint project that "does not go against the doctrine of the Church".

The Vatican academy is sponsoring a one-day symposium on July 22 with the United Nations' global initiative, the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, headed by US economist Jeffrey Sachs.

The academy is also sponsoring a related day-long workshop on July 21, bringing together 60 mayors and representatives of major cities around the world to take steps against modern-day forms of slavery in their communities.

In April, the international coalition Voice of the Family voiced "grave" concern at Vatican collaboration with the UN at a climate change summit.

It was claimed that environmental issues at the UN become an umbrella to cover a wide spectrum of attacks on human life and the family.

Opposition was expressed at the Vatican cooperating with organisations and individuals who promote population control in ways that clearly violate Church teaching.

At the press conference, Bishop Sanchez was asked if the Vatican was letting itself become a platform for the United Nations to promote its own agenda.

Bishop Sanchez said the idea for and organisation of the July 22 meeting came from the pontifical academy with added input from the UN development network.

"The United Nations is not the devil. Rather, quite the opposite," he said.

Pope Paul VI, who was the first pope to visit the United Nations, told the general assembly in 1965 that the organisation represented the mandatory path of modern civilization and world peace, the bishop said.

Successive popes showed the same kind of support with their own visits to the UN, too, he added.

"To see the devil in the United Nations, which some on the right tend to do, is not the position of the Holy See," he said.

Sources

• Catholic News Service
• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Tea Party Tribune

It allows him to support his family and keep his five children in school.

He is the secretary of a farming collective called the St Anthony of Padua group

The collective is part of Caritas Tonga's sustainable livelihoods programme.

Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand assists with funding

The programme aims to boost the income of over 400 families in Tongatapu and Vava'u.

It provides small loans which farmers can use to set up micro-enterprises.

Community members are trained in business management, produce development and marketing.

The income they gain will allow them to become financially independent.

"We support poor farmers who cannot afford any collateral for their loans and otherwise would have no other way of acquiring financial support either from a bank or other private institution," says Sr Senolita Vakata, director of Caritas Tonga.

Source

• caritas.org.nz
• Image: food.caritas.org

"We think it's an important event, and an important opportunity, but more to try and put poverty reduction and poor people's livelihood at the center of the debate about greening development, about moving to more sustainable development models," said Sarah Wykes, CAFOD's lead analyst on environment and climate change.

"The hottest topic for discussion for both summits will be how to build a 'green economy' to help achieve sustainable development. But we are concerned that the green economy needs to also be fair and help lift millions of people out of poverty."

"We strongly believe that money will not change life on the planet," said Mario Nicacio from the Indigenous Council of Roraima, Brazil.

"To me, the phrase 'green economy' means a bag full of money ready to be used to transform the forest into a place without fresh air. If I had one minute to speak to all the world leaders, I would tell them that using a lot of money to preserve the Amazon is not enough, they must educate the world's population."

CAFOD, via a press statement, is concerned about the current vision for a 'green economy', saying it focuses too much on the economy, the economic interests of the rich and industrialised countries and not enough on the 'green' sustainable development in poor countries.

Sources

• Vatican Radio
• CAFOD
• Image: Relacoes Internacionais