Building Broad-based Alliances to Tackle the Climate Crisis
February 9, 2023
College of the Holy Cross President Vincent D. Rougeau invites the college community into conversation with his collaborator Rev. Angus Ritchie on community organizing for our common home. In his lecture, Fr. Ritchie, director of the Centre for Theology and Community and a priest in the Anglican Diocese of London, explains the harm of "fake" populism employed by the political right and left: It keeps wealth and power in the hands of the elites, uses a politics of grievance and scapegoating, and causes the people to be passive and isolated. He then shows how an "inclusive populism," as embraced by Pope Francis, is rooted in the lives of the people, is provocative but ultimately peaceable, and develops its leaders through experience. Finally, he shows how inclusive populism is best able to address environmental injustice.
His lecture was cosponsored by the McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture and the Office of the President.