Please join us for a celebration of our common home in preparation for Earth Day this year. Featuring guest speaker Marinel Ubaldo, a leading youth climate activist from the Philippines. Her talk will be followed by a flower planting ceremony and remarks from faith leaders in the South Bend area. Marinel Ubaldo is an advocate for climate justice and the environment. She is a registered social worker and one of the Founders of the Youth Leaders for Environmental Action Federation, a youth-led organization based in Eastern Visayas that aims to mentor youth individuals and organizations in climate advocacy. She was the Advocacy Officer for Ecological Justice and Youth Engagement of Living Laudato Si' Philippines, and the Philippine Country Coordinator for UN COY16 Glasgow. She also serves as the Philippine Focal Point for Climate Science Olympiad. Marinel has been actively involved in educating communities — especially, the youth and children — about climate change and the roles they can take to adapt and mitigate to its effects. She has spoken to world leaders on behalf of Filipinos during the opening of the UNFCCC COP21 in Paris and in UNFCCC COP25 in Madrid. She has been trained by former US Vice-President Al Gore as a Climate Reality Leader and her global campaign with Amnesty International calling on the Philippine government to ensure relocation of Super-Typhoon Haiyan survivors generated 528,070 actions from around the world. 3:30 pm Interfaith Flower Planting4:00 pm Conversation with Marinel Ubaldo Refreshments provided. RSVPs are not required. All are welcome and encouraged to attend! This event is co-sponsored by the Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion, Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies, and the Nanovic Institute for European Studies, with support from the the Klau Institute for Civil and Human Rights, the Keough School for Global Affairs, the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, and Sustainability at Notre Dame. Originally published at ansari.nd.edu.

One of the pathologies that produce poverty in the current economic system is the simultaneous deification of things and reification of people: we invest divinity in material things, while people are treated as instruments toward profit. In this lecture, William T. Cavanaugh will explore the Eucharist as an antidote to this idolatry. The Eucharist provides a better, sacramental way of seeing God's presence in the material world, while simultaneously offering an identification of people, especially the poor, with God in Christ. This is part of a six-part lecture series called "The Only Solution is Love: The Eucharist and Catholic Social Teaching."  This lecture will be presented by William T. Cavanaugh, professor of Catholic studies and director of the Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology at DePaul University, with a response by Jenny Newsome Martin, Ph.D., Department of Theology, University of Notre Dame. For more information, please click here.  Originally published at mcgrath.nd.edu.