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! As of June 2021, the entire Mary Ward network is working together to implement the Vatican’s Laudato Si 7 Year Action Plan.  

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 

• LJN August Article | I go among the trees and sit still
• LJN September article | 2021 Season of Creation
• The Pope Video, September 2021 | An Environmentally Sustainable Lifestyle
• 2021 Social Justice Statement (Australian Catholic Bishops)
• Province Season of Creation/Laudato Si Action Plan folio
  – Community Engagement and Participation
  – Response to the Cry of the Earth
  – Ecological Spirituality
• Ecological Examen
• Energy Examen
• Ignatian articles on Laudato Si
• Mary Ward JPIC | Laudato Si Seven Year Action Plan
• Launching the Laudato Si Seven Year Action Plan
• Season of Creation Booklet 2020 – Mary Ward JPIC Office
• IBVM at the UN – Issues  
• UN Climate Change Newsletter – Update No 40   
• Pope Launched Seven Year Laudato Si Action Plan
• Laudato Si Action Plan, 2021
• 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)