Michael Downs

Michael Downs serves as director of Justice and Kinship at Bishop O'Dowd High School in Oakland. He is also a member of the California Catholic Conference's Environmental Stewardship Committee and the Vatican's Laudato Si Action Platform Working Group.

By this Author

Photo of sequoia tree with burn scar (Shutterstock/Kevin Case)

At Home in Creation: Blessing in the burning

With the Earth on fire, where is hope sprouting?

Smoke from fires in California settles over the author's childhood hometown in Montana. (Michael Downs)

At Home in Creation: Keep on breathing

May we breathe in the suffering of the planet and the poor and breathe out solidarity, resiliency and action.

Students experience kinship with creation at Bishop O'Dowd High School in Oakland, California. (Vincent Jurgens)

At Home in Creation: Learning to see land as relative, land as self

As we are urged by scientific and spiritual leaders alike towards a paradigm shift in how we relate to land, do we have the courage to see land as relative, or even more radically, land as self?

Photo of tree struck by lightning. (Photo by Michael Downs)

At Home in Creation: Gratitude as a grounding force amid climate disruption

As we face the crisis of climate change, gratitude is not denial, but a way to stay grounded in our knowledge of the work that is ours to do.

The streets of San Francisco as classroom

As high school teachers, my colleagues and I stand in solidarity with young climate activists.

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