Ecologists at center dedicated to St. Kateri help children integrate faith and nature
A statue of St. Kateri Tekakwitha. / Credit: Saint Kateri Conservation Center CNA Staff, Feb 16, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).
When Kathleen Hoenke and William Jacobs aren’t working as professional ecologists by day in their secular jobs, they’re using their backgrounds to serve the Saint Kateri Conservation Center, a national Catholic nonprofit that promotes faith, ecology, biodiversity, and climate resiliency — especially with the next generation.
The two colleagues have written a new book titled “God Made That!” that aims to inspire kids to explore nature, deepen their faith, and discover the beauty of God’s creation. It introduces a Catholic perspective on ecology, with accessible explanations of how Scripture, the saints, and Church teaching encourage care for creation.
The book also includes interactive features such as nature journal prompts, saint profiles, prayers, and hands-on activities, inspiring readers to actively explore their surroundings and reflect on their faith.
“The separation of science and faith doesn’t give young people an integral view of creation,” Jacobs, the founder and senior ecology adviser at the center, told CNA. “And we want young people — especially today, it’s so important when everything is so secularized — we want young people to have an integral view of creation that includes God.”
Through several different programs, the Saint Kateri Conservation Center helps Catholics and their parishes across the U.S. to strengthen their relationships with God and creation. These programs include Saint Kateri Habitats, a Catholic Ecology Library, an Indigenous Peoples Program, a Catholic Land Trust, and their newest program, Parish Arks.
The aim of the Parish Arks program is to encourage parishes to create mini arks of faith and biodiversity as well as to conserve 30% of a parish’s open land and water to rewild their habitat for biodiversity.
The name of the program was inspired by Noah’s Ark and the Blessed Virgin Mary as the Ark of the New Covenant.
“I think Parish Arks really presents an opportunity to work within parish communities to create a deeper understanding of living within Laudato Si’,” said Hoenke, who serves as the executive director and spatial ecologist at the center.
“When we look at the landscapes around us, you would expect — if we were to really live within our faith and what integral ecology is — you would expect a Catholic parish to be the place that you would look to and see an area that’s very biodiverse with lots of native vegetation and living in harmony with creation,” she explained. “But what we really see are lawns everywhere you look.”
With this in mind, the Parish Arks program will work to guide parishes to rewild their lawns, meaning to restore an area of land to its natural, uncultivated state. The guidance given to the parishes will also be shared with their parishioners and incorporated into curriculums of any parish schools so that the entire community can take part in the process.
Hoenke pointed out the importance of incorporating school-aged children into their various programs, because the more you teach these concepts to children at a young age, “the more you’ll develop children’s strong faith but also [teach them] how to live in harmony with creation.”
Some ideas Hoenke offered families who want to get their children thinking about God and creation include making a Marian garden in the backyard, planting flowers, making a rosary out of wildflowers, or simply praying outside.
“I really think the first step is to really help them to notice what’s going on around them at a deeper level,” she shared.
Jacobs said he hopes that through the new book and the work being done at the Saint Kateri Conservation Center, children will “recognize that God as the Holy Spirit is present and active throughout creation and upholds life at every moment. So, we have science but we also have faith, and the two work together.”
