How I Started This

My name is Joe Muller. I'm a husband, father, theology teacher, poet, and community organizer. (If you like poetry, I wrote Changing Water into Wine: The Gospels in Rhyme - www.changingwaterintowine.com.)

I spent a long time trying to work for environmental change. I moderated high school clubs, started a Laudato Si group in my parish, and did some volunteer work with Catholic Climate Covenant and the Laudato Si Movement.

In my local groups, we had some very good ideas I'm proud to be a part of, but we were just as often lacking them. When I worked with experts, I was helping to organize protests and running meetings with the New York state senators’ offices. And I realized we need to connect the young people, with all their passion and enthusiasm, with each other and with those who are doing this for a living.

With the support of SSGN, CETE and Pax Romana, I’m creating a network of environmental groups from Catholic high schools, to share ideas, events, campaigns, etc. I want to help them meet people who share their passion, learn from each other, and spread what works best. Our group is just in its infancy, but we would like to create training and have monthly campaigns aimed at making real change around environmental issues in our communities, our schools, our churches, our economy, and our government.