Groppe, Elizabeth

English

epublications@Marquette

Conversations on Jesuit Higher EducationVolume 50 Article 3September 2016On Care for Our Common Home: AConversation among CreaturesElizabeth GroppeFollow this and additional works at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/conversationsRecommended CitationGroppe, Elizabeth (2016) "On Care for Our Common Home: A Conversation among Creatures," Conversations on Jesuit HigherEducation: Vol. 50 , Article 3.Available at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/conversations/vol50/iss1/32 CONVERSATIONS ON JESUIT HIGHER EDUCATION                                                                                                                                          The springs of Solsonès pressup from under the range ofCatalonia’s Busa mountains.Seasonally, their flow is sostrong that they generatemagnificent waterfalls thatcascade over rocks cloaked inemerald green moss, moisten-ing the air with their mist.These are the headwaters ofthe Cardoner River that cutsits path through the Spanishvillage of Manresa on its wayto join its waters to those ofthe Llobregat.Ignatius of Loyola spentalmost a year in Manresa in1522. He entered the villageon foot after relinquishing hisnobleman’s garments andwarrior sword in a night-longvigil before the BlackMadonna at the BenedictineMonastery at Montserrat. Itwas in Manresa that he spentlong hours of prayer andpenance in a cave, openinghimself to a wisdom thatwould guide the remainder ofhis remarkable life and inspirethe composition of the Spiri-tual Exercises. One day, as hewas walking to a church amile’s distance from Manresaalong a road that followed theCardoner, he sat upon theground and faced the swiftlyflowing water.“While he was seatedthere,” Ignatius recounted,telling the story of his own pil-grimage to a fellow Jesuit as ifhe were narrating the life of adifferent person, “the eyes ofhis understanding began to beopened; though he did not seeany vision, he understood andknew many things, both spiri-tual things and matters offaith and learning, and thiswas with so great an enlight-enment that everythingseemed new to him. It was as ifhe were a new man with a newintellect.” The Social Justiceand Ecology Secretariat of theSociety of Jesus’ 2011 specialreport on ecology, Healing aBroken World, relates Ignatius’experience at the Cardoner tohis theological conviction thatthe love of the triune God per-meates all of creation and thatwe are to “find God in allthings” (No. 49).In 1965, centuries after Ig-natius’ transformative experi-ence, studies of the Cardonerfound no trace of the lifeforms common in healthyriver waters. Test samples re-vealed only organisms whosepresence is indicative of highlevels of water pollution. Thecontamination of the river, ex-plains Josep Lluís Iriberri, S.J.,a professor at Barcelona’s Uni-versitat Ramon Llull, origi-nates in the region’s salt andpotassium mines and the dis-charges of the cities throughwhich the river passes. Acrossthe globe today, the rivers thatare the aqueous arteries andveins of the planet are suffer-ing not only from industrialand agricultural pollution butalso from drought, deluge,and the diversion of their wa-ters for human purposes.On Carefor OurCommonHome A Conversation among CreaturesBy Elizabeth Groppe1Groppe: On Care for Our Common Home: A Conversation among CreaturesPublished by e-Publications@Marquette, 2016                                                                                                                                                                                                                 3And today, the first Jesuit pope in the history of theCatholic Church has issued the first expressly ecologi-cal encyclical, “Laudato Si’: On Care for Our CommonHome.” Like Pope John XXIII’s “Pacem in Terris,”which was promulgated in the midst of the Cold War,Pope Francis’ historic letter is addressed not only toRoman Catholics but to all women and men of goodwill. Unique among papal encyclicals, it gives expres-sion not only to human voices but also to Brother Sun,Sister Water, and all creatures of the cosmos. In conti-nuity with the teaching of Pope John Paul II and PopeBenedict XVI as well as regional episcopal conferencesfrom across the globe, the encyclical invites us to anecological conversion. It begins with words of praise(“Laudato Si’, mi’ Signore”) and is composed of six care-fully crafted chapters. Chapter One is entitled “WhatIs Happening to Our Common Home” and opens theencyclical with a summary of the travail of creation(Rom 8:22).Broken Boundaries and RelationshipsA domestic household maintains its health in partthrough the establishment of boundaries and limits. Afinancial budget sets a limit on expenditures onmonthly rent or mortgage with the intention of reserv-ing funds for food, clothing, medicine, and other neces-sities. A fence around a back yard sets the boundaries ofa protected play area for children. Limits on the socialLeft: The Spiritual Journey of St. Ignatius Loyola: Image 2 of 5: “Ignatius composing Spiritual Exercises at Manresa, overlooking RiverCardoner.” Dora Niklov Bittau. Copyright Seattle University. Above: River Cardoner today, photo courtesy of the Jesuit Curia in Rome. 2Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education, Vol. 50, Iss. 1 [2016], Art. 3http://epublications.marquette.edu/conversations/vol50/iss1/34 CONVERSATIONS ON JESUIT HIGHER EDUCATION                                                                                                                                          A Major JesuitMeetingBeginning on October 2, Jesuit rep-resentatives from all over the worldwill meet in Rome for General Con-gregation 36. Their major agendaitem will be to accept the resignationof Fr. Adolfo Nicolás, the SuperiorGeneral, and then to elect his succes-sor. Father Nicolás officially convokedthis meeting on Dec. 8, 2014.        A general congregation is rarein the Society of Jesus. If the supe-rior general dies in office, one mustbe convoked to elect his successor.If the superior general wants to re-tire, the congregation must give itsapproval.         After the election of a new gen-eral, the delegates consider “mattersof greater moment” in the life of theorder. A committee will have met tocompose a document describingthe state of the Society of Jesustoday. Other groups will proposetopics for consideration.         Throughout its history, theorder has considered education tobe a crucial ministry, and theschools have drawn attention fromgeneral congregations. They wouldbe more concerned with global is-sues rather than with specifics. Andthey would generally support thegreat work being done in so manyacademic settings. More information is available atwww.jesuits.org.Fr. Adolfo Nicolás, the SuperiorGeneral of the Jesuits, wrote a letterin April introducing a new documentprepared by a group of economistsand theologians from all over theworld; overseeing the work wereMichael Garanzini, S.J., and Patxi Ál-varez, S.J., the Jesuit secretaries forhigher education and for social jus-tice and ecology respectively.         The document reflects theclose connection between ecologi-cal concerns and other issues ofeconomic and social justice. Thepurpose is meant to spur discus-sion, research, and advocacy. It ismeant not only for Jesuits but alsofor individual colleagues in min-istry, concerned groups, and institu-tions as a whole.         Father Nicolás’s letter invites Je-suit institutions to develop amethodology to work on the docu-ment with a special focus on localsituations, bringing intellectual andspiritual light to these concerns. Heurges all to examine closely the per-sonal, communal, and institutionalresponses we are capable of and toavoid the temptation to believe thatthis is beyond us, that we are in-significant players, “too small orweak to make a difference.”         As this issue of Conversationsshows, colleges and universities arecapable of finding solutions to prob-lems that beset our world; workingtogether we can do much more.         The full text of the document isavailable athttp://www.sjweb.info/sjs/PJ/index.cfm?PubTextId=15696 . Or a searchusing the terms “promotio iustitiae121” will also access the document. An Invitation to Make a DifferenceITEMS FROM ROMEThe view of the dome of St. Peter’s from the Jesuit Curia's roof.3Groppe: On Care for Our Common Home: A Conversation among CreaturesPublished by e-Publications@Marquette, 2016                                                                                                                                                                                                                 5activities of adolescents are instituted by parentswith the intention of supporting youth in gradu-ally developing a mature freedom. The boundaries of our familial householdsexist within a vast web of planetary relationshipsto which we denizens of industrial western civi-lization have been largely unattentive. We havetaken for granted the weather patterns of the last10,000 years that have been so hospitable to the de-velopment of settled agricultural civilizations, thestability of the polar ice caps, the shorelines of theoceans, the fertility of the soil, and the fecundity ofthe seas. These dimensions of our biosphere, how-ever, are contingent not only on the creative provi-dence of God, but also on the complex interplay ofa multiplicity of biogeochemical relationships.A helpful synthesis of the scientific researchthat shapes the context of “Laudato Si’” can befound in the publications of an international teamof 18 scientists who have collaborated to identifyand monitor the life systems that have made theEarth’s biosphere so hospitable to our species. Inthe article “Planetary Boundaries: A Safe Operat-ing Space for Humanity” published in the journalScience in 2009 and then updated in 2015, Will Stef-fen and colleagues explain that our activity ispressing against or transgressing the limits to aplanet hospitable to our species in nine ways: (1)destabilization of the climate; (2) loss of biodiver-sity and biospheric integrity; (3) depletion ofstratospheric ozone; (4) acidification of the ocean;(5) disruption of the phosphorus and nitrogen cy-cles; (6) deforestation and other forms of land sys-tem degradation; (7) freshwater depletion; (8) therelease into the atmosphere of aerosals, i.e. micro-scopic particles such as soot that affect the climateand living organisms; and (9) the introduction intothe biosphere of novel entities, including organicpollutants, radioactive materials, nanomaterials,and micro-plastics.Just as overspending a household’s financialbudget or failing to limit the activity of a toddlercan lead to homelessness or harm, so too overstep-ping or ignoring the boundaries of the systems thathave made the Earth habitable for Homo sapienswill have adverse consequences. According to theauthors of “Planetary Boundaries,” humanity hasalready overstepped four of the nine boundaries ofthe life systems that make the planet a place thathumans can call home.Exclamations of WonderIn the Spiritual Exercises, Ignatius meditates on hisown sinfulness and voices “exclamations of wonder,with intense feeling, as I reflect on the whole rangeof created beings … the heavens, the sun, the moon,the stars and the elements, the fruits, the birds, thefishes, and the animals … how ever have they letme live and kept me alive!” The earth’s flora andfauna have long endured our ecological transgres-sions. Today, however, we are pushing them acrosstheir limits of resilience. With power equivalent tothat of an asteroid crashing into the earth’s surface,humanity is precipitating the sixth mass extinctionof species in Earth’s history, and climate change isdriving earth systems into a state fundamentallydifferent than that which our own species has en-joyed in all of our 200,000 years of existence.“Doomsday predictions,” Pope Francis writesin “Laudato Si’,” “can no longer be met with ironyor disdain” (No. 161). The science that informs theencyclical supports this dire prognosis. Yet thework of the church is not simply to reiterate thescience but to “protect mankind from self-destruc-tion” (No. 79). To this end, the encyclical’s secondchapter, “The Gospel of Creation,” offers a speciesthat has transgressed planetary limits withPromethean presumption a vision of the Earth asthe work of a Creator who loves and cares forevery single creature. “The best way to restore menand women to their rightful place, putting an endto their claim to absolute dominion over the earth,is to speak once more of the figure of a Father whocreates and who alone owns the world” (No. 75).This is a loving God who grants creatures theirown autonomy and yet simultaneously remainspresent to us, such that cosmic history is a dramaof the interplay of divine grace and creaturely free-dom. Francis invites us to see creation “with the4Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education, Vol. 50, Iss. 1 [2016], Art. 3http://epublications.marquette.edu/conversations/vol50/iss1/36 CONVERSATIONS ON JESUIT HIGHER EDUCATION                                                                                                                                          gaze of Jesus” as a realm of laws and equilibriumsthat must be respected, a world that manifests di-vine wisdom and inspires awe and praise. “The Human Roots of the Ecological Crisis,”the encyclical’s third chapter, identifies the heartof the crisis as our pursuit of an ideal of progressthat is lacking an ultimate purpose, direction, ormeaning. Francis appreciates the tremendous con-tribution of modern science and technology to theimprovement of the quality of human life. Ourtechnological power, however, has grown at apace that has exceeded our growth in wisdom andresponsibility. In this context, technoscience hasoften become a one-dimensional instrument ofcontrol serving a narrow understanding of self-in-terest. In the void of meaning that results, those ofus who are privileged fill the emptiness of ourlives with consumer goods and digital virtual real-ity, while the impoverished struggle to surviveamidst the wastelands and rubble of a globalizedindustrial economy. Chapter Four’s reflections on “Integral Ecol-ogy” highlight humanity’s unique place in God’screation but emphasize that humanity is a part ofnature, not its master. The natural and socialspheres are inseparable, and ecological degrada-tion and social disintegration have a commonroot. Francis invites us to commit ourselves to thecommon good of the human family and all crea-tures, to realize our interconnectedness, to over-come the inequities of our world, and to “feel thedesertification of the soil almost as a physical ail-ment, and the extinction of a species as a painfuldisfigurement” (No. 89). Chapter Five, “Lines ofApproach and Action,” calls for local initiatives,the articulation of global norms and strengtheningof international institutions, and the practice of ahealthy politics and true statecraft characterizedby nobility, generosity, and courage. A final chap-ter on “Ecological Education and Spirituality” in-vites us to the contemplation of beauty, thepractices of care and tenderness, the cultivation ofecological habits and virtues, and the joyful cele-bration of life in sublime communion with the tri-une God and all creatures. “God of love, show usour place in this world as channels of your lovefor all the creatures of this earth … Praise be toyou!” (No. 246)A New Conversation“Laudato Si’” invites Jesuit universities to an ur-gent and potentially transformative conversation.Pope Francis traces the roots of our social and eco-logical crisis to a cultural void of ultimate purposethat has left us to manage our common home witha one-dimensional technoscience. This techno-science is incapable on its own of setting us on anew course. Surely, we need more than ever theknowledge that science generates and new formsof technology that can support new forms ofhuman civilization. But technoscience alone can-not produce a noble and courageous political cul-ture. On its own, it cannot overcome the reductiveepistemologies of modernity and the fragmenta-tion of the disciplines of the academy. It cannotgenerate the ecological economics that Francis en-visions nor serve the same ends as theology andspirituality. The surge in our technological powerenabled by modern science, Francis laments, hasnot been accompanied by a growth in wisdom,culture, and ethics.The Jesuit university is a place of conversationwhere the integration of science, economics,ethics, philosophy, history, anthropology, art, liter-ature, music, and theology that Francis envisionsmight actually occur. Within a community en-gaged in such a collaborative search for wisdom,we can potentially become, like Ignatius on thebanks of the Cardoner, new men and women with“a new intellect.” The exercise of this Ignatian in-tellect is inseparable from action on behalf of thesuffering members of the human family and allcreatures in our common home, for, the Exercisesinstruct us, “Love ought to find expression indeeds more than in words.” These deeds includethe work of those who installed purification sta-tions along the course of the Cardoner River in1985. Now, Professor Iriberri testifies, one whostands on the old bridge in Manresa beholdsducks and other birds feeding in their waters, asign of a healthy river ecosystem. Laudato Si’, miSignore, per sor’Acqua, la quale è multo utile et humileet pretiosa et casta.Elizabeth T. Groppe is an associate professor of theologyat Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio. 5Groppe: On Care for Our Common Home: A Conversation among CreaturesPublished by e-Publications@Marquette, 2016

On Care for Our Common Home: A Conversation among Creatures

Conversations on Jesuit Higher EducationVolume 49 Jesuit Higher Education in a GlobalContext Article 29September 2016On Care for Our Common Home: AConversation among CreaturesElizabeth GroppeFollow this and additional works at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/conversationsRecommended CitationGroppe, Elizabeth (2016) "On Care for Our Common Home: A Conversation among Creatures," Conversations on Jesuit HigherEducation: Vol. 49 , Article 29.Available at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/conversations/vol49/iss1/292 CONVERSATIONS ON JESUIT HIGHER EDUCATION                                                                                                                                          The springs of Solsonès pressup from under the range ofCatalonia’s Busa mountains.Seasonally, their flow is sostrong that they generatemagnificent waterfalls thatcascade over rocks cloaked inemerald green moss, moisten-ing the air with their mist.These are the headwaters ofthe Cardoner River that cutsits path through the Spanishvillage of Manresa on its wayto join its waters to those ofthe Llobregat.Ignatius of Loyola spentalmost a year in Manresa in1522. He entered the villageon foot after relinquishing hisnobleman’s garments andwarrior sword in a night-longvigil before the BlackMadonna at the BenedictineMonastery at Montserrat. Itwas in Manresa that he spentlong hours of prayer andpenance in a cave, openinghimself to a wisdom thatwould guide the remainder ofhis remarkable life and inspirethe composition of the Spiri-tual Exercises. One day, as hewas walking to a church amile’s distance from Manresaalong a road that followed theCardoner, he sat upon theground and faced the swiftlyflowing water.“While he was seatedthere,” Ignatius recounted,telling the story of his own pil-grimage to a fellow Jesuit as ifhe were narrating the life of adifferent person, “the eyes ofhis understanding began to beopened; though he did not seeany vision, he understood andknew many things, both spiri-tual things and matters offaith and learning, and thiswas with so great an enlight-enment that everythingseemed new to him. It was as ifhe were a new man with a newintellect.” The Social Justiceand Ecology Secretariat of theSociety of Jesus’ 2011 specialreport on ecology, Healing aBroken World, relates Ignatius’experience at the Cardoner tohis theological conviction thatthe love of the triune God per-meates all of creation and thatwe are to “find God in allthings” (No. 49).In 1965, centuries after Ig-natius’ transformative experi-ence, studies of the Cardonerfound no trace of the lifeforms common in healthyriver waters. Test samples re-vealed only organisms whosepresence is indicative of highlevels of water pollution. Thecontamination of the river, ex-plains Josep Lluís Iriberri, S.J.,a professor at Barcelona’s Uni-versitat Ramon Llull, origi-nates in the region’s salt andpotassium mines and the dis-charges of the cities throughwhich the river passes. Acrossthe globe today, the rivers thatare the aqueous arteries andveins of the planet are suffer-ing not only from industrialand agricultural pollution butalso from drought, deluge,and the diversion of their wa-ters for human purposes.On Carefor OurCommonHome A Conversation among CreaturesBy Elizabeth Groppe1Groppe: On Care for Our Common Home: A Conversation among CreaturesPublished by e-Publications@Marquette, 2016                                                                                                                                                                                                                 3And today, the first Jesuit pope in the history of theCatholic Church has issued the first expressly ecologi-cal encyclical, “Laudato Si’: On Care for Our CommonHome.” Like Pope John XXIII’s “Pacem in Terris,”which was promulgated in the midst of the Cold War,Pope Francis’ historic letter is addressed not only toRoman Catholics but to all women and men of goodwill. Unique among papal encyclicals, it gives expres-sion not only to human voices but also to Brother Sun,Sister Water, and all creatures of the cosmos. In conti-nuity with the teaching of Pope John Paul II and PopeBenedict XVI as well as regional episcopal conferencesfrom across the globe, the encyclical invites us to anecological conversion. It begins with words of praise(“Laudato Si’, mi’ Signore”) and is composed of six care-fully crafted chapters. Chapter One is entitled “WhatIs Happening to Our Common Home” and opens theencyclical with a summary of the travail of creation(Rom 8:22).Broken Boundaries and RelationshipsA domestic household maintains its health in partthrough the establishment of boundaries and limits. Afinancial budget sets a limit on expenditures onmonthly rent or mortgage with the intention of reserv-ing funds for food, clothing, medicine, and other neces-sities. A fence around a back yard sets the boundaries ofa protected play area for children. Limits on the socialLeft: The Spiritual Journey of St. Ignatius Loyola: Image 2 of 5: “Ignatius composing Spiritual Exercises at Manresa, overlooking RiverCardoner.” Dora Niklov Bittau. Copyright Seattle University. Above: River Cardoner today, photo courtesy of the Jesuit Curia in Rome. 2Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education, Vol. 49, Iss. 1 [2016], Art. 29http://epublications.marquette.edu/conversations/vol49/iss1/294 CONVERSATIONS ON JESUIT HIGHER EDUCATION                                                                                                                                          A Major JesuitMeetingBeginning on October 2, Jesuit rep-resentatives from all over the worldwill meet in Rome for General Con-gregation 36. Their major agendaitem will be to accept the resignationof Fr. Adolfo Nicolás, the SuperiorGeneral, and then to elect his succes-sor. Father Nicolás officially convokedthis meeting on Dec. 8, 2014.        A general congregation is rarein the Society of Jesus. If the supe-rior general dies in office, one mustbe convoked to elect his successor.If the superior general wants to re-tire, the congregation must give itsapproval.         After the election of a new gen-eral, the delegates consider “mattersof greater moment” in the life of theorder. A committee will have met tocompose a document describingthe state of the Society of Jesustoday. Other groups will proposetopics for consideration.         Throughout its history, theorder has considered education tobe a crucial ministry, and theschools have drawn attention fromgeneral congregations. They wouldbe more concerned with global is-sues rather than with specifics. Andthey would generally support thegreat work being done in so manyacademic settings. More information is available atwww.jesuits.org.Fr. Adolfo Nicolás, the SuperiorGeneral of the Jesuits, wrote a letterin April introducing a new documentprepared by a group of economistsand theologians from all over theworld; overseeing the work wereMichael Garanzini, S.J., and Patxi Ál-varez, S.J., the Jesuit secretaries forhigher education and for social jus-tice and ecology respectively.         The document reflects theclose connection between ecologi-cal concerns and other issues ofeconomic and social justice. Thepurpose is meant to spur discus-sion, research, and advocacy. It ismeant not only for Jesuits but alsofor individual colleagues in min-istry, concerned groups, and institu-tions as a whole.         Father Nicolás’s letter invites Je-suit institutions to develop amethodology to work on the docu-ment with a special focus on localsituations, bringing intellectual andspiritual light to these concerns. Heurges all to examine closely the per-sonal, communal, and institutionalresponses we are capable of and toavoid the temptation to believe thatthis is beyond us, that we are in-significant players, “too small orweak to make a difference.”         As this issue of Conversationsshows, colleges and universities arecapable of finding solutions to prob-lems that beset our world; workingtogether we can do much more.         The full text of the document isavailable athttp://www.sjweb.info/sjs/PJ/index.cfm?PubTextId=15696 . Or a searchusing the terms “promotio iustitiae121” will also access the document. An Invitation to Make a DifferenceITEMS FROM ROMEThe view of the dome of St. Peter’s from the Jesuit Curia's roof.3Groppe: On Care for Our Common Home: A Conversation among CreaturesPublished by e-Publications@Marquette, 2016                                                                                                                                                                                                                 5activities of adolescents are instituted by parentswith the intention of supporting youth in gradu-ally developing a mature freedom. The boundaries of our familial householdsexist within a vast web of planetary relationshipsto which we denizens of industrial western civi-lization have been largely unattentive. We havetaken for granted the weather patterns of the last10,000 years that have been so hospitable to the de-velopment of settled agricultural civilizations, thestability of the polar ice caps, the shorelines of theoceans, the fertility of the soil, and the fecundity ofthe seas. These dimensions of our biosphere, how-ever, are contingent not only on the creative provi-dence of God, but also on the complex interplay ofa multiplicity of biogeochemical relationships.A helpful synthesis of the scientific researchthat shapes the context of “Laudato Si’” can befound in the publications of an international teamof 18 scientists who have collaborated to identifyand monitor the life systems that have made theEarth’s biosphere so hospitable to our species. Inthe article “Planetary Boundaries: A Safe Operat-ing Space for Humanity” published in the journalScience in 2009 and then updated in 2015, Will Stef-fen and colleagues explain that our activity ispressing against or transgressing the limits to aplanet hospitable to our species in nine ways: (1)destabilization of the climate; (2) loss of biodiver-sity and biospheric integrity; (3) depletion ofstratospheric ozone; (4) acidification of the ocean;(5) disruption of the phosphorus and nitrogen cy-cles; (6) deforestation and other forms of land sys-tem degradation; (7) freshwater depletion; (8) therelease into the atmosphere of aerosals, i.e. micro-scopic particles such as soot that affect the climateand living organisms; and (9) the introduction intothe biosphere of novel entities, including organicpollutants, radioactive materials, nanomaterials,and micro-plastics.Just as overspending a household’s financialbudget or failing to limit the activity of a toddlercan lead to homelessness or harm, so too overstep-ping or ignoring the boundaries of the systems thathave made the Earth habitable for Homo sapienswill have adverse consequences. According to theauthors of “Planetary Boundaries,” humanity hasalready overstepped four of the nine boundaries ofthe life systems that make the planet a place thathumans can call home.Exclamations of WonderIn the Spiritual Exercises, Ignatius meditates on hisown sinfulness and voices “exclamations of wonder,with intense feeling, as I reflect on the whole rangeof created beings … the heavens, the sun, the moon,the stars and the elements, the fruits, the birds, thefishes, and the animals … how ever have they letme live and kept me alive!” The earth’s flora andfauna have long endured our ecological transgres-sions. Today, however, we are pushing them acrosstheir limits of resilience. With power equivalent tothat of an asteroid crashing into the earth’s surface,humanity is precipitating the sixth mass extinctionof species in Earth’s history, and climate change isdriving earth systems into a state fundamentallydifferent than that which our own species has en-joyed in all of our 200,000 years of existence.“Doomsday predictions,” Pope Francis writesin “Laudato Si’,” “can no longer be met with ironyor disdain” (No. 161). The science that informs theencyclical supports this dire prognosis. Yet thework of the church is not simply to reiterate thescience but to “protect mankind from self-destruc-tion” (No. 79). To this end, the encyclical’s secondchapter, “The Gospel of Creation,” offers a speciesthat has transgressed planetary limits withPromethean presumption a vision of the Earth asthe work of a Creator who loves and cares forevery single creature. “The best way to restore menand women to their rightful place, putting an endto their claim to absolute dominion over the earth,is to speak once more of the figure of a Father whocreates and who alone owns the world” (No. 75).This is a loving God who grants creatures theirown autonomy and yet simultaneously remainspresent to us, such that cosmic history is a dramaof the interplay of divine grace and creaturely free-dom. Francis invites us to see creation “with the4Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education, Vol. 49, Iss. 1 [2016], Art. 29http://epublications.marquette.edu/conversations/vol49/iss1/296 CONVERSATIONS ON JESUIT HIGHER EDUCATION                                                                                                                                          gaze of Jesus” as a realm of laws and equilibriumsthat must be respected, a world that manifests di-vine wisdom and inspires awe and praise. “The Human Roots of the Ecological Crisis,”the encyclical’s third chapter, identifies the heartof the crisis as our pursuit of an ideal of progressthat is lacking an ultimate purpose, direction, ormeaning. Francis appreciates the tremendous con-tribution of modern science and technology to theimprovement of the quality of human life. Ourtechnological power, however, has grown at apace that has exceeded our growth in wisdom andresponsibility. In this context, technoscience hasoften become a one-dimensional instrument ofcontrol serving a narrow understanding of self-in-terest. In the void of meaning that results, those ofus who are privileged fill the emptiness of ourlives with consumer goods and digital virtual real-ity, while the impoverished struggle to surviveamidst the wastelands and rubble of a globalizedindustrial economy. Chapter Four’s reflections on “Integral Ecol-ogy” highlight humanity’s unique place in God’screation but emphasize that humanity is a part ofnature, not its master. The natural and socialspheres are inseparable, and ecological degrada-tion and social disintegration have a commonroot. Francis invites us to commit ourselves to thecommon good of the human family and all crea-tures, to realize our interconnectedness, to over-come the inequities of our world, and to “feel thedesertification of the soil almost as a physical ail-ment, and the extinction of a species as a painfuldisfigurement” (No. 89). Chapter Five, “Lines ofApproach and Action,” calls for local initiatives,the articulation of global norms and strengtheningof international institutions, and the practice of ahealthy politics and true statecraft characterizedby nobility, generosity, and courage. A final chap-ter on “Ecological Education and Spirituality” in-vites us to the contemplation of beauty, thepractices of care and tenderness, the cultivation ofecological habits and virtues, and the joyful cele-bration of life in sublime communion with the tri-une God and all creatures. “God of love, show usour place in this world as channels of your lovefor all the creatures of this earth … Praise be toyou!” (No. 246)A New Conversation“Laudato Si’” invites Jesuit universities to an ur-gent and potentially transformative conversation.Pope Francis traces the roots of our social and eco-logical crisis to a cultural void of ultimate purposethat has left us to manage our common home witha one-dimensional technoscience. This techno-science is incapable on its own of setting us on anew course. Surely, we need more than ever theknowledge that science generates and new formsof technology that can support new forms ofhuman civilization. But technoscience alone can-not produce a noble and courageous political cul-ture. On its own, it cannot overcome the reductiveepistemologies of modernity and the fragmenta-tion of the disciplines of the academy. It cannotgenerate the ecological economics that Francis en-visions nor serve the same ends as theology andspirituality. The surge in our technological powerenabled by modern science, Francis laments, hasnot been accompanied by a growth in wisdom,culture, and ethics.The Jesuit university is a place of conversationwhere the integration of science, economics,ethics, philosophy, history, anthropology, art, liter-ature, music, and theology that Francis envisionsmight actually occur. Within a community en-gaged in such a collaborative search for wisdom,we can potentially become, like Ignatius on thebanks of the Cardoner, new men and women with“a new intellect.” The exercise of this Ignatian in-tellect is inseparable from action on behalf of thesuffering members of the human family and allcreatures in our common home, for, the Exercisesinstruct us, “Love ought to find expression indeeds more than in words.” These deeds includethe work of those who installed purification sta-tions along the course of the Cardoner River in1985. Now, Professor Iriberri testifies, one whostands on the old bridge in Manresa beholdsducks and other birds feeding in their waters, asign of a healthy river ecosystem. Laudato Si’, miSignore, per sor’Acqua, la quale è multo utile et humileet pretiosa et casta.Elizabeth T. Groppe is an associate professor of theologyat Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio. 5Groppe: On Care for Our Common Home: A Conversation among CreaturesPublished by e-Publications@Marquette, 2016

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On Care for Our Common Home: A Conversation among Creatures

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