Social Justice Tag: Earth

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September 27, 2024

The theme chosen for this year’s observance of the Season of Creation is “To Hope and Act With Creation,” based on this scripture passage.  Let’s reflect a bit on the meaning of the word “hope.”

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September 14, 2024

Incarnation is the profound revelation of the sacredness of everything. Mercy is incarnational, a visceral response to the seeing, feeling or hearing of suffering, need or pain. Mercy love is relational, responding to those with broken hearts. This call has found a reply among those drawn to Mercy for 193 years now. We not only celebrate that this Mercy Day, but we also tune our hearts and consciousnesses to what that means given the realities of this time. 

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May 22, 2023

By Sister Sarita Vasquez The Sisters of Mercy work to sustain all life by caring for Earth. In our dedication to discovering God in all things, we recognize the ecological spirituality that ties us to the beauty of creation. As we celebrate the eighth anniversary of Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’, I am reminded of a book I read at the height of the pandemic, An Astonishing Secret by Daniel O’Learly.

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April 22, 2024

In our Mercy schools, Earth Day, April 22, is not a one-off event to celebrate the environment. The annual commemoration underscores their dutiful year-round efforts to cultivate not only a greener planet but also more conscientious, knowledgeable and compassionate stewards of creation, our future leaders.

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April 21, 2023

By Sister Edia Lopez After two powerful hurricanes, ETA and IOTA, struck Central America in 2020, Sisters of Mercy in Panama moved to support the disaster victims and help with their immediate needs. However, after experiencing the disaster and the flooding caused by the storms, we wondered what hope there was for Mother Earth.

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July 29, 2022

By Jocelyn Welch, Mercy Montessori Erdkinder/Farmessori Directress — Mercy Montessori’s Farmessori and Erdkinder Program in Cincinnati, Ohio, is rooted in Montessori philosophy and strives to give all students opportunities to work with the land and grow into stewards of our Earth.

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June 14, 2022

By Sarah Smith, director of Mercy Partnership Fund — Rebecca Chituyi, a 27-year-old farmer in Kenya’s Bungoma District, and her husband Richard worked hard to support their family on just a half-acre of land, but didn’t see much success. “The harvest used to depress me,” says Rebecca. “I would only get two bags of maize (corn), and this only lasted us for a few months.” In 2018, One Acre Fund came to Rebecca’s village. The nonprofit organization, which the Sisters of Mercy have invested in through the Mercy Partnership Fund, the global community investing program of Mercy Investment Services, provides seeds, fertilizer, education and post-harvest support to more than 1.4 million smallholder farmers across Africa.

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February 19, 2024

Waking before dawn, people living in the Andes in northern Peru, often must walk many miles to get a ride into the town of Chulucanas—a drive of four or five hours—just for the opportunity to get basic medical care from visiting U.S. doctors.

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January 5, 2024

If Jesus wanted to empower 12 female apostles in the Philippines, he wouldn’t have to look any further than a dozen women who work at McAuley Herbal Clinic in Lala, Mindanao—located in one of the country’s poorest regions.

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October 9, 2023

I am a coward. I have never read Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. I couldn’t finish Killers of the Flower Moon. I am a professional woman of white and consider myself an ally to the cause of all native peoples. And yet reading these stories was too painful for me. Ironic. 

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November 13, 2023

Eight years after the Laudato Si, Pope Francis released the Laudate Deum exhortation, which also is directed toward every person of goodwill as it describes the problems, analyzes their causes and demands immediate action to address the climate crisis. Francis wants to bring the encyclical up to date, creating a sense of urgency about this dramatic global social problem, which is caused by structural sin.

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December 20, 2022

By Sister Ana María Siufi – The Conference of the Parties, COP27, was held in November in Egypt to review and move ahead with agreements on climate change. I was part of the Mercy Global Action (MGA) delegation, along with Sister Angela Reed (MGA director), Cecilie Kern (from the MGA office), and Sister Magdalene Musau from Kenya. The experience was challenging and educational.

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May 24, 2022

By Sister Maria Teresa Muhuhu — Responding to Earth’s cry is a sacred calling for Sisters of Mercy of the Americas in Jamaica and the Caribbean. It is not optional. At stake are the lives of the people we serve—women, children, migrants, people made poor—and the very existence of the beautiful islands we call home.

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August 22, 2022

By Catherine Walsh, Features Writer – Something special has happened over the years since the Sisters of Mercy first started ministering with the people of the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas, near the U.S./Mexico border, in 1875. The sisters and the women, children, and families of the Mexican immigrant community have formed a tight bond. And in recent years they have forged a mutual commitment to the Mercy mission of caring for Earth. In fact, they have put Earth at the center of their work together this year at four ARISE Adelante community centers that are co-sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy and the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word.

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July 29, 2022

By Jocelyn Welch, Mercy Montessori Erdkinder/Farmessori Directress — Mercy Montessori’s Farmessori and Erdkinder Program in Cincinnati, Ohio, is rooted in Montessori philosophy and strives to give all students opportunities to work with the land and grow into stewards of our Earth.

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July 7, 2022

By Elsa Cromarty, Coordinator of Mercy Associates in Guyana — “The human environment and the natural environment deteriorate together….In fact, the deterioration of the environment and of society affects the most vulnerable people on the planet….The impact of present imbalances is also seen in the premature death of many of the poor.” This quote from Laudato Si’ reminds us that we and Earth are one. We are indispensably connected, and human actions, good or bad, decisively affect our relationship with the environment.