Ecological Justice

Gratitude for all God’s gifts is at the heart of Ignatian spirituality.  Our appreciation of the beauty of nature and our interconnectedness with all creation calls us to a focussed care for all living things.  Our biblical understanding of justice and relationships, and tenets of Catholic Social Teaching focus our heads, hearts and hands on careful stewardship of creation. Increasingly we are attuned to the deep connection our Indigenous sisters and brothers share with the earth and the nourishment of a spirituality that is connected with all creation. Our response to our fragile planet is a spiritual imperative, not simply a form of social activism. 

In 2014 the global Institute articulated Five Calls including the call ‘to live sustainably, discerning what is enough.’  A year later Pope Francis promulgated his call to integral ecology in his ground-breaking encyclical Laudato Sí. The Province takes seriously the pleas for ecological conversion in Laudato Sí.  Many of the Sustainable Development Goals relate directly to integral ecology; an integrated approach to environmental and social justice that highlights the bond between humans and the natural world.  The CJ/IBVM desk at the United Nations encourages us to reflect critically on the link between the poverty of the earth and the poverty of so many of our sisters and brothers. The promotion of Laudato Si is a major platform of the Mary Ward JPIC office in Rome. Responses of Mary Ward’s Institute make heartening reading!   

Our communities, schools and ministries are responding to climate change in many creative ways: going plastic-free, committing to a Province carbon offset scheme of tree-planting, adopting environmentally-friendly heating and cooling measures, and divesting from fossil fuels. At the invitation of the IBVM General Leadership Team in Rome all provinces have been invited to develop an ecological justice project as part of the 200 year Jubilee celebrations marking the arrival of Mary Ward’s Institute in Ireland under the leadership of Mother Teresa Ball in 1821. We petition, protest and pray; we acknowledge that our actions today have a huge impact on the future of all God’s creation.  

Resources 

• Season of Creation Booklet 2020 – Mary Ward JPIC Office
• IBVM at the UN – Issues  
• UN Climate Change Newsletter – Update No 40   
• Laudato Si Week Reflections, 2020
• Week 2 Advent Prayer 2019
• The Ayme Issue. 7 | World Environment Day
• A Unified Response to Climate Change
• Lighting India’s Slums
• Laudato Si 
• Catholic Social Teaching and Climate Change 
• Ecological Examen  
• Catholic Earthcare Australia  
• World Environment Day  
• Global World Environment Day
• International Mother Earth Day  
• World Oceans Day  
• Season of Creation
• Creation Prayers
• Sandie Cornish Blog
• Prayers to Care for Creation
• Pope Francis on connection between ecology and equality (2020)