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At home in prayer outdoors, John Paul II looked to St. Francis of Assisi, as a model for saving our endagered world, as is described in Following St. Francis: John Paul II’s Call For Ecological Action by Marybeth Lorbiecki, Rizzoli ExLibris, 2014. (available online)

Dmitri Mataya
author.mb1@gmail.com

Elected second youngest Pope in history in 1978, John Paul II helped inspire the Solidarity movement in Poland and launched a peaceful and cultural revolution throughout the entire Western World. Dubbed the Son of Poland under the Medal of Freedom in 2004, referred to as The First World Leader and The Greatest Political Actor of Our Time in 2005 and canonized a Saint in 2014, John Paul II has always inspired meaningful change. This dynamic book provides a fresh look at urgent environmental problems by exploring the lost ecological teachings of one of our most instrumental catalysts of positive social change. Author Marybeth Lorbiecki presents John Paul II’s invigorating teachings about our ecological responsibilities and their sources. She includes their specific counsel on twelve ecological crises facing the world, which are provocative and radical, and concludes with key sections on transformation and restoration. This work is the only one to have collected the complete range of John Paul II’s environmental teachings. (available online)

Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature and founder of 350.org, provides the book’s foreword, demonstrating the importance of these teachings for the entire environmental movement.

Following St. Francis: John Paul II’s Call For Ecological Action shows John Paul II as an uncompromising advocate for ecological responsibility throughout his papacy and reveals his perspective that the development of a just human society is closely tied with preserving the health of our planet. He shows how harming our natural systems harms the poor. An adamant environmental activist in the name of faith and human citizenship, John Paul II alerts us that our industrialized world is producing a “culture of waste” both ecologically and economically, a culture far more concerned with “having” than with “being.” We have removed ourselves from the essential meaning of life and the means to sustain life, while destroying ourselves spiritually, morally, emotionally and economically, as we have gradually separated ourselves from the natural world in which we live. At the same time, he demonstrates that ecological disasters can serve to be catalysts to positive transformations.

“..artists, in particular, are called upon to collectively use their power to inspire others in this work” stated the former Pope. Following St. Francis: John Paul II’s Call For Ecological Action provides a path forward for all people.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Marybeth Lorbiecki has been at work on environmental issues for more than twenty years and has been consulted by the Holy See about her work on John Paul II’s ecological writings. She is currently the Director of the Interfaith Ocean Ethics Campaign (IOEC), a joint program of the Franciscan Action Network (FAN) and the National Religious Coalition on Creation Care (NRCCC). For more information on Marybeth Lorbiecki, please visit: followingstfrancis.com, marybethlorbiecki.com, and www.oceanethicscampaign.org.

For serial rights, please contact Rizzoli New York to secure.

FOLLOWING ST. FRANCIS:
John Paul II’s Call for Ecological Action
By Marybeth Lorbiecki
Foreword by Bill McKibben
Rizzoli ExLibris, an imprint of Rizzoli New York, 2014
384 pages / 6̎ x 9̎
ISBN: Hardcover – 978-0-8478-4271-1
E-book – 978-0-8478-4273-5
www.rizzoliusa.com

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