Irish Jesuit Province Ecology Project

Caring for our Common Home

As one of the Universal Apostolic Preferences, Caring for our Common Home is an integral component of Jesuit identity. As Pope Francis stated in Laudato Si’ – we face a “complex crisis which is both social and environmental” (LS139). In recogition of this fact, the Irish Jesuit Province is developing a ‘Caring for our Common Home’ policy to look at each of the individual communities and organisations within it using the lens of integral ecology.

As part of this process, early in 2021, we held a Province-wide communal deliberation process to gather opinions on what we should aim at and how we should make progress. Part of that conversation involved identifying what we were already doing to care for our common home, as well as voicing ideas about what more we could do.

The result of this two-month process is represented in a summary document which identified several different themes to be addressed as the project continues. The suggestions in the summary document are therefore attempts to record ideas that have been generated in the dialogue. These proposals are not formally presented for implementation, but are gathered and shared here as an essential step towards that process of communal interpretation.

One of the key issues identified in the discernment process is the lack of awareness of ecological activities that are already happening within the Province. With this in mind we would like to share with you some good news. Here is what we are already doing for biodiversity, energy conservation, community engagement and spirituality.