Mission
We are a national Catholic faith-based, non-profit conservation organization and land trust. Our mission is to promote Catholic faith, integral ecology, and the diversity of life. We were founded in 2000, during the papacy of Saint John Paul II.
We strive to inspire Catholics and all people of good will to create and restore healthy habitats for people and wildlife, beginning at home and in our local communities.
Our programs seek to accomplish the following:
- Restore relationships with God, people, and all of nature
- Renew a sense of place and connection to the land, together with a corresponding land ethic.
- Restore and rewild habitats for people, plants, and animals.
- Conserve biodiversity.
- Protect conservation lands.
- Protect clean air and water.
- Provide access to healthy food and medicines.
- Conserve energy.
- Promote climate resiliency, mitigation, and adaptation.
- Promote the veneration of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha.
The Saint Kateri Conservation Center places God at the center of our work, and recognizes the Holy Spirit present and active in every corner of creation.
We seek to stimulate and sustain the “ecological conversion” called for by Saint John Paul II and later endorsed by his successors Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. Ecological conversion begins with a personal conversion toward God, and extends to the entire community of life—past, present, and future.
We help Catholics become more conservation-minded, especially at home where we live and work. We also help secular conservationists reconnect with God and the spiritual world. For only by turning to God, the Creator of all that is, seen and unseen, will we renew the Earth.
Our work takes aim at the very heart of today’s ecological problems and addresses the “profound moral crisis of which the destruction of the environment is but one troubling aspect,” as Saint John Paul II declared in 1990.
At their core, ecological challenges do not primarily stem from environmental factors, and their resolution cannot be solely sought in secular technology, economics, or politics. Instead, these challenges possess a profound spiritual and moral dimension.
To meet our enormous ecological challenges, we strive to help “rebuild” the Church, much as Saint Kateri Tekakwitha and Saint Francis of Assisi have done. This includes promoting our Catholic faith and supporting the “ecological conversion” necessary to protect and sustain the integrity of God’s creation.
Vision
We envision a faithful, loving home on Earth for all people and the whole of God’s creation.
The Earth is our home. All of God’s creatures, including plants, animals, soil, water, and air, are our little brothers and sisters. Human beings, made in the image and likeness of God, are a special and integral part of nature, and are responsible for its care and cultivation.
We seek to build a Catholic faith community focused on God, his Church, and the restoration of his creation, by encouraging religious expression in the care of creation and by addressing the fundamental spiritual and moral dimensions of ecology and the environment.
Saint Kateri Tekakwitha
We promote the veneration of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, patron saint of Native Americans, First Nations Peoples, and Traditional Ecological Knowledge.
Saint Kateri, please pray for us.
We restore a sense of the sacred & gratitude in #ecology & the #land, with an awareness of the #HolySpirit in creation, as an alternative to #conservation dominated by #materialism, #scientism & #secularism which alone cannot save us. #CatholicTwitter https://t.co/hRBbyJaNlx
— Saint Kateri Conservation Center (@SaintKateriCtr) September 25, 2019