South Asia – SA Conference Ecojesuit Commits to Promote Eco-consciousness and Eco-sensitivity
‘Ecology is not one ministry among many others, but rather the mission of the Society. It needs to pervade, permeate and propel every apostolate of ours’, emphasised Fr. Stanislaus D’Souza, the President of the South Asia Conference, while addressing the Ecojesuit online meeting on 10th July, attended by 21 Province Ecojesuit network representatives. Fr. Stany further suggested the following action plans for implementation: Ecojesuit to meet regularly to share ideas, best practices, and success stories and give clear visibility to the works done; identify, network, learn and collaborate with others in this work of ecology; build ecological communities and villages; use ecology as a platform for dialogue among religions and cultures; integrate ecological mission with social and spiritual ministries and affirm the aspect of transgenerational justice.
Presenting a global overview of the Society’s involvement in Ecology, Fr. Xavier Jeyaraj, Secretary for Social Justice and Ecology in General Curia, highlighted that Care for our Common Home is not new. In 1995, General Congregation (GC) 34 recognised the growing ecological and environmental problems and their impact. In 2008, GC 35 talked about ‘Reconciliation with Creation’ as an essential aspect of being reconciled with God and with other human beings. As a result of all these challenging invitations of the General Congregations, GIAN (Global Ignatian Advocacy Network) was born in 2008. The focus areas of GIAN are Ecology, Right to quality Education, Justice in Mining and Migration. The fourth UAP promulgated in 2019 also calls us to care for our Common Home in a similar tone to the encyclical Laudato Si’.
During his sharing, Fr. Pedro Walpole, International Coordinator for Ecojesuit network, called all towards a commitment which includes listening to the contexts and challenges of ecological engagement at the Conference and Province levels, collaboration and partnership with likeminded groups, strengthening the networks’ strategies and processes for effective communication and civil advocacy.
Fr. Xavier Soreng, Conference Coordinator for Social Justice and Ecology, said, “Caring for our Common Home is the urgent need of the hour. We must focus on becoming one body united in a mission to make our actions more effective. We must generate significant awareness among the youth and learn to appreciate local knowledge (traditional wisdom) of the people and support them.”
Fr. Ignacimuthu, former Vice-Chancellor of Madras University and world-renowned scientist, insisted on using social media for eco-awareness and action promotion. Fr. Lancy D’Cruz shared about the four proposed west zone eco-networks: network for natural resource management for sustainable development, west zone renewable energy network, Eco-CARE (C–Conscientization, A–Awareness, R–Renewal, E–Education) and Communication, Advocacy and Research for Ecology network (CARE).
The next meeting of the Ecojesuit will be held online on 25th August to share the action plans of each Province and evolve certain common action plans for the Conference.
SM. John Kennedy SJ
Coordinator, SA
Conference Ecojesuit Network
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