The Irish Jesuit Province has signed up to participate in Flights for Forests, the carbon-offset programme developed by the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific. This is one of the results of the Jesuit Provincialate’s decision to commit to reflecting critically on its use of air-travel in response to Pope Francis’ invitation to us all to acknowledge our environmental responsibility.
Drought and flooding are the two most significant ecological challenges in Asia Pacific, according to participants in the first Reconciling with Creation Reflection Workshop. According to the workshop report released in October, drought was foremost in the minds of the participants, named by 11 people from eight countries. Flooding was a close second, named by 10 participants from six countries. But these are just two of the host of ecological challeng
The southern Philippine island of Mindanao is home to an abundance of natural resources, chief among them are forests and aquatic resources that sustain and nourish ecosystems. But big agricultural developments and large-scale mining activities have resulted in land dispossession of indigenous communities, violence and environmental degradation.
In one sense it is strange that we should have a “season” of Creation. All seasons are of Creation; they are its very life, the process of sustaining all lives. But, thanks to Pope Francis, the Catholic Church celebrated the Season of Creation for the first time in 2015.
One might have thought they would be exhausted after two long days of immersion, talks and group work, but the third and final day of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific (JCAP) sustainability conference saw ideas coming fast and furious on how sustainability in Asia Pacific can be increased. A bright flame had been lit in the approximately 140 participants from across Asia Pacific.
When the Jesuits in Cambodia gathered for the usual days of prayer, discussions and celebrations in honour of St Ignatius this year, one interesting outcome was the decision to practise a unified, symbolic action to strengthen the Jesuit witness of working for ecological conversion. Such would be a communal response to the Holy Father’s invitation towards care for our common home in Laudato si’. So, during the meeting held from July 27 to 29, they decided that this symbolic action would take the form of giving up the use of plastic straws.
The Jesuit focus on sustainability in Asia Pacific is gaining momentum. Just two days after the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific’s first sustainability conference, the chief executive officers of Jesuit institutions of higher learning agreed that their network would be the institutional home of JCAP’s sustainability movement.
Small-scale farming and indigenous practices in the uplands of Asia are not very sustainable and a great majority of the youth wants out. Given the marginalisation and oppression that still rule in many of these environments with exploitation by corporate “sustainable” logging and mining firms, armed groups, corporate agricultural practices, infrastructure and seeping globalisation, farming life is not a question of success but of survival.
The ecological crisis, the globalised call for environmental stewardship promulgated in Laudato si’ and the 2015 UN Conference on Climate Change in Paris have brought the concept of “sustainability of life” to the fore. These have raised the need for critical reflection on sustainability in the light of the innovative praxis of local communities, particularly the indigenous peoples.
The experience of walking through the forest helped to set the scene of the JCAP Reconciling with Creation Reflection Workshop by immersing us in nature and helping us to reflect on the interconnectedness of all things.