News Release Jan. 23, 2019
Pope Francis’ Climatologist Lectures on Faith and Climate Change
Feb. 12 In New Orleans
Contact: Linda Easterlin
linda@easterlincomm.com, 504-258-1819
NEW ORLEANS—A world-renowned atmospheric scientist known as Pope Francis’s climatologist, Fr. Eduardo Scarel, O.Carm., visits New Orleans in February, giving a free community lecture and speaking to high school students on climate change and faith.
A Carmelite priest from Argentina, Fr. Scarel will speak on Environmental Justice As Seen Through The Lens of Laudato Si’ at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 12, at Schulte Auditorium, Notre Dame Seminary, 2901 S. Carrollton Ave. The lecture is free and open to all. No reservations are necessary. Visit carmelitengo.wixsite.com/environmentallecture.
Fr. Scarel’s talk is designed to inspire a wide audience— academicians, students and anyone interested in how faith and scientific issues of climate change intersect. On Feb. 11, he also will speak to history, physics and religion classes at St. Mary’s Dominican High School and students at Mt. Carmel Academy.
The Carmelite NGO, a non-profit organization headquartered in New Orleans and composed of members of the worldwide Carmelite order, is bringing Fr. Scarel to the city as part of a nationwide lecture tour. Fr. Scarel is the Carmelite NGO’s representative to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and a member of its Coordinating Team.
Pope Francis greets Fr. Eduardo Scarel, O.Carm.
Fr. Scarel gained acclaim when he served as an advisor to Pope Francis as the Pope produced his 2015 Encyclical Laudato Si: On Care For Our Common Home. Laudato Si', “praise be to you,” is taken from text of Canticle of the Sun, St. Francis of Assisi’s 13th century praise poem. In the Encyclical, Pope Francis calls for global action to address climate change and care for the earth as an issue of faith.
In Argentina, Fr. Scarel is Chair Professor and Researcher, School of Astronomy and Geophysics, State University of La Plata, and Associate Researcher, National Scientific and Technique Research Council. He is conducting research at the School of Physics, Salamanca State University, Spain, where he transferred to join the Formation Team, International Study House of the Carmelite Order.
Fr. Eduardo earned a M.Sc. degree in Atmospheric Sciences, Ph.D. in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences from Buenos Aires State University and Theology degree from Buenos Aires Salesian Theology Institute. In his postdoctoral fellowship, from National Scientific and Technique Research Council, he researched troposphere and stratosphere climate variability at Argentine Pontifical Catholic University.
“The current ecological crisis, evidenced by climate change, energy resource depletion, increasing breach between the richest and the poorest, among others, seems to have started with a human-being crisis,” Fr. Scarel has written.
“The present time urges us to help other people become aware of the need to preserve the quality of life and existence of all the creatures on earth so that they, and we, could be able to go on telling that He, God, has passed by ourselves, clothing us in beauty.”
Fr. Scarel’s lecture is endorsed by the Archdiocese of New Orleans, Maryknoll Education, Call To Action, Leadership Conference of Women Religious, Region 5 and Loyola University’s Jesuit Social Research Institute.
About the Carmelite NGO
The Carmelite NGO is a global organization of Carmelite priests, brothers, nuns and sisters who work for education, freedom of belief, human rights and sustainable development. The NGO is in Special Consultative Status with the Economic & Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations and is part of with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the UN Environmental Program. It is affiliated to the UN Department of Public Information (DPI).