Social Justice Tag: Earth

This encyclical by Pope Francis is one of the most significant documents about creating mutually enhancing relationships among humans and the rest of creation.  Like any encyclical, its purpose is to assist the reader in the formation of conscience on a specific issue. If you have time, you may want to reread the whole encyclical.  Through poetic, scientific and religious imagery and language, Pope Francis challenges us to Care for our Common Home.  (Click here for the whole document).

For our purposes, we will be focusing on a few sections of Laudato Si’ that will help us move toward a new consciousness related to extractivism.  Allow yourself time to savor the words and be formed by their meaning.

You are invited to read and mull over each of the following quotes and connect them with extractivism as it impacts our Common Home—Earth.

What ideas from Laudato Si’ do you want to keep in mind as you view videos and read materials about extractivism?

Chapter One—What is Happening to Our Common Home? (par 17-61)

# 52) The foreign debt of poor countries has become a way of controlling them, yet this is not the case where ecological debt is concerned. In different ways, developing countries, where the most important reserves of the biosphere are found, continue to fuel the development of richer countries at the cost of their own present and future. The land of the southern poor is rich and mostly unpolluted, yet access to ownership of goods and resources for meeting vital needs is inhibited by a system of commercial relations and ownership which is structurally perverse. The developed countries ought to help pay this debt by significantly limiting their consumption of non-renewable energy and by assisting poorer countries to support policies and programmes of sustainable development. The poorest areas and countries are less capable of adopting new models for reducing environmental impact because they lack the wherewithal to develop the necessary processes and to cover their costs. We must continue to be aware that, regarding climate change, there are differentiated responsibilities. As the United States bishops have said, greater attention must be given to “the needs of the poor, the weak and the vulnerable, in a debate often dominated by more powerful interests”.[31] We need to strengthen the conviction that we are one single human family. There are no frontiers or barriers, political or social, behind which we can hide, still less is there room for the globalization of indifference.

Chapter Two—The Gospel of Creation (par 62-100)

#92) Everything is connected. Concern for the environment thus needs to be joined to a sincere love for our fellow human beings and an unwavering commitment to resolving the problems of society.

#93) Whether believers or not, we are agreed today that the earth is essentially a shared inheritance, whose fruits are meant to benefit everyone.

Chapter Four—The Human Roots of the Ecological Crisis (par 137-162)

#138) Ecology studies the relationship between living organisms and the environment in which they develop. This necessarily entails reflection and debate about the conditions required for the life and survival of society, and the honesty needed to question certain models of development, production and consumption.

#139) When we speak of the “environment”, what we really mean is a relationship existing between nature and the society which lives in it. Nature cannot be regarded as something separate from ourselves or as a mere setting in which we live. We are part of nature, included in it and thus in constant interaction with it. Recognizing the reasons why a given area is polluted requires a study of the workings of society, its economy, its behaviour patterns, and the ways it grasps reality. Given the scale of change, it is no longer possible to find a specific, discrete answer for each part of the problem. It is essential to seek comprehensive solutions which consider the interactions within natural systems themselves and with social systems. We are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis which is both social and environmental. Strategies for a solution demand an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature.

#145) Many intensive forms of environmental exploitation and degradation not only exhaust the resources which provide local communities with their livelihood, but also undo the social structures which, for a long time, shaped cultural identity and their sense of the meaning of life and community. The disappearance of a culture can be just as serious, or even more serious, than the disappearance of a species of plant or animal. The imposition of a dominant lifestyle linked to a single form of production can be just as harmful as the altering of ecosystems.

#156) An integral ecology is inseparable from the notion of the common good, a central and unifying principle of social ethics. The common good is “the sum of those conditions of social life which allow social groups and their individual members relatively thorough and ready access to their own fulfillment”.

Chapter Five—Lines of Approach and Action (par 163-201)

#182) An assessment of the environmental impact of business ventures and projects demands transparent political processes involving a free exchange of views. On the other hand, the forms of corruption which conceal the actual environmental impact of a given project, in exchange for favours, usually produce specious agreements which fail to inform adequately and to allow for full debate.

#183) Environmental impact assessment should not come after the drawing up of a business proposition or the proposal of a particular policy, plan or programme. It should be part of the process from the beginning, and be carried out in a way which is interdisciplinary, transparent and free of all economic or political pressure. It should be linked to a study of working conditions and possible effects on people’s physical and mental health, on the local economy and on public safety….The local population should have a special place at the table; they are concerned about their own future and that of their children, and can consider goals transcending immediate economic interest.

#185) In any discussion about a proposed venture, a number of questions need to be asked in order to discern whether or not it will contribute to genuine integral development. What will it accomplish? Why? Where? When? How? For whom? What are the risks? What are the costs? Who will pay those costs and how? In this discernment, some questions must have higher priority. For example, we know that water is a scarce and indispensable resource and a fundamental right which conditions the exercise of other human rights. This indisputable fact overrides any other assessment of environmental impact on a region.

Chapter Six—Ecological Education and Spirituality (par 202-246)

#202) Many things have to change course, but it is we human beings above all who need to change. We lack an awareness of our common origin, of our mutual belonging, and of a future to be shared with everyone. This basic awareness would enable the development of new convictions, attitudes and forms of life. A great cultural, spiritual and educational challenge stands before us, and it will demand that we set out on the long path of renewal.

#217) Living our vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or a secondary aspect of our Christian experience.

#220) This ecological conversion calls for a number of attitudes which together foster a spirit of generous care, full of tenderness. First, it entails gratitude and gratuitousness, a recognition that the world is God’s loving gift, and that we are called quietly to imitate his generosity in self-sacrifice and good works … It also entails a loving awareness that we are not disconnected from the rest of creatures, but joined in a splendid universal communion. As believers, we do not look at the world from without but from within, conscious of the bonds with which the Father has linked us to all beings.

#225) An integral ecology includes taking time to recover a serene harmony with creation, reflecting on our lifestyle and our ideals, and contemplating the Creator who lives among us and surrounds us, whose presence “must not be contrived but found, uncovered”.

#229) We must regain the conviction that we need one another, that we have a shared responsibility for others and the world, and that being good and decent are worth it.

#230) Saint Therese of Lisieux invites us to practise the little way of love, not to miss out on a kind word, a smile or any small gesture which sows peace and friendship. An integral ecology is also made up of simple daily gestures which break with the logic of violence, exploitation and selfishness. In the end, a world of exacerbated consumption is at the same time a world which mistreats life in all its forms.

#231) Love, overflowing with small gestures of mutual care, is also civic and political, and it makes itself felt in every action that seeks to build a better world. Love for society and commitment to the common good are outstanding expressions of a charity which affects not only relationships between individuals but also “macro-relationships, social, economic and political ones”. [156] That is why the Church set before the world the ideal of a “civilization of love”. [157] Social love is the key to authentic development: “In order to make society more human, more worthy of the human person, love in social life – political, economic and cultural – must be given renewed value, becoming the constant and highest norm for all activity”. [158] In this framework, along with the importance of little everyday gestures, social love moves us to devise larger strategies to halt environmental degradation and to encourage a “culture of care” which permeates all of society. When we feel that God is calling us to intervene with others in these social dynamics, we should realize that this too is part of our spirituality, which is an exercise of charity and, as such, matures and sanctifies us with all creation which Saint Francis of Assisi so radiantly embodied.

Questions for reflection:

• What ideas from this document speak to your conscience around the impact of extractivism on people, communities and Earth?

• As we learn about relationships between extractive industries corporations and local communities what do we need to keep in mind about creating mutually enhancing relationships? How do our option for Earth and our option for the poor impact where we stand?

• What from the lens of Laudato Si’ is important for you to keep in mind and heart as you grow in awareness of the impact of extractivism on people, communities and Earth?

Background

The Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas embraces the tradition of Catherine McAuley. We have been shaped by her vision and her living of the Gospel and by her commitment to walk with the economically poor. Following in her footsteps, we vow to be of service to persons who are made poor, persons who are sick and persons who are uneducated. We have continued to deepen our Mercy tradition in these contemporary times. In the course of our last three Institute Chapters (2005, 2011 and 2017), we intensified our desire to live in solidarity with our suffering world and with all of God’s creation. We continually seek to transform ourselves toward greater integrity of word and deed.

“The God of Mercy, Wisdom and Mystery is calling us, as Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, an international and intercultural community, to deepen our relationship with God and one another, and to intensify our work in communion with others who seek a more just and inclusive world.”

Chapter 2017 Recommitment: Called to New Consciousness

Through an expressed commitment to our Critical Concerns, we give special attention to five interrelated areas of need in our suffering world—Earth, Immigration, Nonviolence, Racism and Women. We understand that our commitment to these Critical Concerns must be considered within a broader context and in relation to one another. (Click here for more on the Critical Concerns.)

Call to a New Consciousness

During the 2017 Institute Chapter, we deepened our commitment to listen to the cries of people, communities and Earth most deeply impacted by extractive industries. We committed to respond with “integrity and clear intention” to their demand for justice and the flourishing of life for all.

As Mercy, we are called to consider more profoundly our responsibilities to Mother Earth. We seek to live in harmony and interrelatedness with Earth and to support the right of the Earth and her inter-related communities to fulfill their important roles in the ever-renewing processes of life (Berry 1999). The “demand to embrace our Critical Concerns through the lens of nonviolence” compels us to listen to people, communities and Earth—who have been brutally impacted by extractive industries.

As Mercy, we are called to listen to the communities of color and indigenous communities—those who continue to be disproportionately and violently impacted by extractive industries.  We must actively work in becoming an anti-racist community and to address our climate emergency. It requires a recentering of the stories and experiences that drive our decision-making.  We ask what it means today for Mercy to stand in solidarity with communities harmed by extractive industries and to address their exploitative systems and to be part of the solution to avoid the worst impacts of our climate emergency.

“Called in this moment to act,” we are compelled to respond to the impact of extractive industries on people, communities and Earth. By committing ourselves to a decentered way of listening, seeing and making decisions, we engage in decolonized analyses of the exploitative extractive development model and our own structures and practices that enable extractive industries. We seek right relationship and harmony with the community of life, in which we strive to embrace a reciprocal, cooperative and non-dominant relationship with all of God’s kindom.

“We hear the call of our suffering world. The impoverishment of peoples, the devastation of Earth and oppressive social norms and systems call us at this moment to act…To intensify our efforts to align our investments with our values and especially now, to pursue education and action against practices of extractive industries that are destroying people communities and Earth.”

Chapter 2017 Recommitment statement

Key Points in Using a Mercy Lens:

1. We serve the suffering of our world with a special commitment to our Critical Concerns.
2. We work toward transformation of greater integrity in word and deed.
3. We exercise a preferential option for and listen to the cries of communities, especially communities of color, Indigenous Peoples and the marginalized, demanding justice from where they stand and in their own experience.
4. We seek right relationship and harmony with Earth’s community of life through reciprocal, cooperative and non-dominant relationships.
5. We listen to the stories and experiences of others from a decentralized and decolonized place.
6. We caution against the imbalance and destructive forces perpetrated by the dominance of the powerful, privileged, white, patriarchal, and capitalistic/imperialistic perspective.
7. We continue to ask questions to get to the deepest root causes of the suffering of people and Earth.

Questions:

1. What stays with you from this description of the Mercy lens?
2. Is there a concept or element in the description that you need clarified? If so, what?
3. What is the key word that speaks most to you about using a Mercy lens to analyze the impact of extractivism on peoples, communities and Earth?
4. How do we get to the decolonized and decentralized place referenced?  What, if anything, looks different there from how most of your time and energy are spent?  What are the opportunities you find with this approach?  And the challenges?
5. How have you seen the use of the Mercy lens to uncover the root causes that impact action or decision making for yourself or Mercy as a community?

As we move forward in our conversations on extractivism, we engage in the familiar process of contemplative dialogue. We will engage in contemplative dialogue in each session and sometimes several times within a session.

• The First Session: SEEING—Deep Listening
• The Second Session: JUDGING—Deep Reflection
• The Third Session: ACTING—Deep Transformation

This process will help us center ourselves through deep listening and inner silence. We seek to create within and among ourselves a place of attentiveness that grounds us in our communal interconnectedness. It is in this circle that we make space for new ways of seeing and knowing. We open ourselves for something new to emerge.  It is in this kairos moment that we seek metanoia—a conversion of heart. 

Some helpful reminders as we enter our contemplative dialogue. Pay attention to what holds deep meaning for you. Open your body to feel the impact of another’s sharing. Let go of what you already know so that something new can emerge. Recall that we are transformed by conversations that we have never had before.

As we engage in the process, remember to speak briefly, share what matters in a few sentences. Speak to the center, not toward an individual. As you listen, look to the one who is speaking. Listen without thinking about what you are going to say. Relax and hold your own understandings lightly.

• SILENCE. The process begins with a period of silence (It is helpful for some participants to know the amount of time for the silence. If the time exceeds 10 minutes, allow time for silent walking as some participants center better with movement).

• SHARING. After the silence, allow some time for a brief sharing of how each person is coming to this moment.
  • Here, the convener poses a question and invites each participant to respond briefly. (The purpose here is to create a space of trust and connection among the participants to move the group to a deeper level). 
  • The question might be, what has stayed with you or touched your heart as you listened and reflected?

• DIALOGUE. Then the convener shifts the group into a period of silence, perhaps with instrumental music. Again, it is helpful for some people to announce the length of time for reflection. Once the time of reflection seems sufficient, the dialogue begins. Here the group will consider the questions posed in a particular section of a session.
  • It might be helpful to provide a brief period of silence in the transition between questions.
  • During the dialogue, each person should be given an opportunity to share before anyone speaks a second time. It is helpful to encourage participants to build on one another’s insights, contribute their own insights, and be aware of the emergence of shared wisdom. 
  • Dialogue stops when there is a natural ending.

• INSIGHT. The convener concludes the process by inviting each person to share on two questions:
  • How have you experienced this process of sharing?
  • What did you notice about what was being created in your dialogue?

Chapter 2017 Recommitment

In 2017 in Buffalo, New York, the Sixth Institute Chapter gathered to discuss how we could transform ourselves toward greater integrity of word and deed. We affirmed the various ways in which we could strengthen our relationships with one another.  And we challenged ourselves to embrace our Critical Concerns more fully using the lens of nonviolence. Finally, we recommitted ourselves to hear and to respond to the cries of Earth and the cries of the poor.

This theological reflection process is a response to the Chapter identification of a critical issue known as extractivism. Extractivism refers to the process of extracting raw materials (minerals, metals, oil, gas and coal) from Earth in such a way that it irreparably destroys vital ecosystems, land and water, and severely impacts air quality. The effects include

• devastating communities and cultures,
• displacing people from their homes and land, often through force or coercion,
• and escalating public health crises with new diseases and illnesses.

These effects deepen the suffering of people who are impoverished and vulnerable. Extractive industries typically manipulate their way into these communities with promises of jobs and a better life.

In the process that follows, we seek to understand more deeply how extractivism impacts the whole community of life, including vital ecosystems and the communities that live in these ecosystems. We seek to understand how we are complicit in destroying these ecosystems through our systemic, individual and communal actions. As stated in our Chapter 2017 Recommitment, we are called to act against the oppressive social norms and systems that lead to the destruction of Earth and the impoverishment of peoples. The critical issue of extractivism challenges us more than ever to have a deeper conversation about our values. We seek to align our investments with our values. This requires an in-depth conversation about our values, the process of how and in what we invest, and about how our investments speak to our values.

Compelled by God’s call to a new consciousness, we as Sisters of Mercy are moved to claim more deeply our interrelatedness within a community of life. We seek to respond in concrete ways to our ecological crisis. In particular, we are drawn to understand how extractivism impacts all of us, including the most vulnerable among us. We are most especially called to listen deeply to how extractivism impacts the land, air and water of communities of color and indigenous peoples. We are called and challenged to explore the oppressive systems that enable extractivism and how our habitual ways of thinking and acting contribute to the practice of extractivism. We are further compelled to engage our prophetic corporate voice on the question: Where do we choose to stand together as a unified whole on the critical issue of extractivism?

Welcome to Awakening to a New Consciousness — an Institute-wide theological reflection process that has been thoughtfully designed as a unique opportunity to come together as a Mercy family to:

• Deeply listen to the experiences of those most impacted by extractive industries;
• Deeply engage in theological reflection and social analysis;
• Prepare for deep transformation as individuals, as community and as an Institute.

All members of the Mercy community are invited to learn more about the extractives industry and how it affects people, community and Earth by reading and reflecting on the information below.

Please contact justice@sistersofmercy.org with any questions.  

In answering the challenges of our times, we begin by listening deeply to the experiences of those traumatized and most impacted by extractivism and to our own experiences. We reflect and learn from these experiences by placing ourselves in a new light. The process of conversion begins when we experience the unexpected in ourselves and in the vulnerability of the other.

These inner and outward encounters unsettle our own habitual ways of thinking and acting. We begin “to see what we have made invisible.” In effect, when we become “seared by an experience,” we are compelled to change and to address systemic change. We realize that the small steps of our own conversion keep us personally engaged in the larger corporate decisions. A prophetic corporate voice is not enough in a world where supply and demand shape the forces that entrap the vulnerable.

Among the vulnerable are the rural indigenous peoples struggling against corporate pollution of their waters, land and air; the economically impoverished urban people struggling to acquire daily food; and the refugees fleeing desperate situations often entrapped in border places. It cannot go unnoticed that most of these communities are Black, indigenous and other persons of color. Earth is among the most vulnerable, suffocating with explosive human consumption and multi-national greed.

God’s Call to a New Consciousness: Conversations on Extractivism

These conversations on extractivism call us to seek a more intense union with God through contemplative dialogue and through a cyclic process of conversion. In this kairos time, God draws us together to engage our prophetic voice. As we enter into dialogue with one another, we seek to learn more about extractivism and the systems that maintain it and its effects, and move toward conversion that leads to common action. Through our prophetic corporate action, we challenge ourselves: How do we choose to stand together as a whole on the critical issue of extractivism?

Our conversations take an integral approach, engaging us in three ways.

1. deep listening in which we hear personal and communal experiences that bring the effects of extractivism to life;
2. deep reflection on these experiences and on the root causes and effects of extractivism that is grounded in our theology and our social analysis; and
3. deep transformation as we discern how to act at this moment in time.

We will rely on intercultural and interdisciplinary lenses that shift power out of dominant Western worldviews and theologies. We will look to engage the whole body: mind, heart, flesh, hands and feet, understanding that knowledge is not located exclusively in the head, nor solely in facts and figures and scientific data. We are summoned to listen to the stories our whole body reveals to us. Even so, we cannot dismiss empirical data, as this information shows us what our bodies do not: the invisible poison in the crystal-clear river as it works its way down the mountain, the unseen toxins in the air that does not obscure our view of healthy trees, or the hidden contaminants in a deliciously crunchy apple.

We begin by listening deeply to experience (our lived reality and the lived reality from the perspective of peoples, communities and Earth impacted by extractive industries). Deep listening is listening with the heart. We move ourselves deeper by reflecting on these experiences. Deep reflection is letting go of preconceived ideas and norms so we can become open to others’ ways of interpreting reality, which compels us to deepen our understanding of the root causes and real effects of extractivism. Together we will use the lens of eco-feminist theology of liberation rather than the dominant theological lens of the global North. This lens moves us out of the boundaries and dominations of Western analytical processes to include the wisdom, experiences and mediums (e.g., art, poetry, story and song) meaningful to those who live on the margins of society. The lens of an eco-feminist theology of liberation has risen from within the global south in its struggle against the interventions of the global north, and it will compel us to see differently.

By listening and reflecting deeply, we identify the ways in which we are called to respond. We engage God’s desires for a deeper communion between ourselves and God, a deeper communion with our neighbors, especially persons made poor by extractive industries, and a deeper communion with Earth and all of creation. Through this process, we are continually called to a change, personally, communally and corporately, to be in solidarity with and responsive to the needs of the vulnerable and marginalized. Truly working to be an anti-racist institution requires a recentering of the stories and experiences that drive our decision-making, truly a deeper transformation.

This threefold process requires deep listening, deep reflection and deep transformation, and it compels us on both a personal and communal level to respond to God’s call for a new consciousness. It is not a linear progression, but a circular movement, going deeper by listening and reflecting, and coming back to our experience, and going yet deeper again as the cycle progresses through our conversation together and we come into a place of transformation.

Resistance to Change and the Power of Habits

The resistance to change, the power of habits and our support of exploitative systems are among the greatest hurdles facing each of us as we seek to transform ourselves, our community and our world. In order to effect real change, we need to understand and engage change and transformation within ourselves while we are also seeking systemic change and transformation in the world. We cannot challenge extractivism while in the same breath supporting it by our daily habits and in our corporate decisions. Fear and the complexity of the issue can paralyze our responses unless we follow the lead of those most impacted and their creative resp    onses that already are underway to address the problems of extractivism. In short, there is hope and a way forward.

As Mercy, we continually renew our commitment to our Critical Concerns: Earth, immigration, nonviolence, racism and women. We challenge ourselves on a daily basis to reflect on our habitual ways of thinking and acting, and at times, we choose to disrupt old habits and form new beneficial ones for the common good. We engage in this personal transformation when we pray, make choices about what we buy and how we live our daily lives and where we decide to collectively invest; we educate ourselves and others in addressing our Critical Concerns; we advocate with legislators and leaders; and we invest our resources to effect systemic change.

Deepening Our Commitment to Conversion of Lifestyle

Two major environmental crises of our times unfolded in 2019-2020. In 2019, the burning of the Amazon rainforest, rightly called the lungs of the planet, accelerated. Driven by economic interest, land was and continues to be cleared for cattle ranching and for mineral extraction. The first highway ever built deep into the Amazon has paved the way for massive destruction of old- growth forests and substantial intrusions into the lands of indigenous peoples. The horrors perpetrated on the indigenous communities led to Pope Francis’ call for the Amazon Synod (October 6-27, 2019). Bishops gathered to listen to the cries of the people who lived and worked in the Amazon. The church found itself called to new paths of conversion.

Beginning in March 2020, we faced the unprecedented crisis of a global pandemic. The world has been shuttered by a new coronavirus (COVID-19). Daily habits were disrupted, and we have all been compelled to form new behaviors. While we were forced to stay home, Earth was on a mild recuperation from our lack of activity. Reduced gas emissions worldwide resulted in cleaner air, bringing back views of our world once obscured in haze. But the behaviors we engage in today may not become new Earth-friendly habits once COVID subsides. And so, the warming of the planet will continue on its trajectory.

The density of human population and its need for food and energy will intensify as the destruction of the natural world increases. Humans and their communities will persist in overstepping boundaries and encroaching into the habitats of wildlife. As a result, we will see not only the destruction of natural lands and forests as we have seen in the Amazon, but also a continual threat and a rise in frequency of more deadly viruses that originate when humans and domesticated animals “encounter” wildlife. Viruses such as MERS and SARS, and probably now the infamous COVID-19, have been linked in some way to human encounters with bats. Today COVID-19 threatens black and indigenous communities with alarming rates of infections and deaths.

Viruses will probably change our world even more in the years to come as climate change and human activity continue to disrupt ecosystems.

A third crisis, while not a new reality, challenges us. The Black Lives Matter movement has challenged longstanding systemic racism in the U.S., and particularly racism perpetrated on Black communities. Racial violence fueled first by the historic brutality of slavery was followed by Jim Crow laws and lynching mobs that enforced systemic racism and racial segregation. The Black Lives Matter movement makes visible the persistent forms of systemic racism still existing in our day, especially racism inherent of our judicial and police systems. Environmental racism and racism embedded in financial structures and the extractive development model is seen as Affordable housing and schools serving Black communities are often located in old chemical- and waste-dumping grounds.  In an area dubbed Cancer Alley, Louisiana industries along the Mississippi River continue to decimate the health of Black communities. Underlying health conditions and lack of access to affordable healthcare surface as yet another effect of systemic racism. Black people have died from COVID in disproportionate numbers. Thousands have joined the Black Lives Matter movement to challenge these forms of structural, systemic and environmental racism.

As we struggle with the destruction of the Amazon and with COVID, and as we join in the challenge to address personal and systemic racism, we also face the unmitigated forces of extractive industries. Unrestrained extractivism takes many forms, and it affects the whole network of ecosystems, including our own. Extracting minerals and energy, or extracting human labor (monocrops), or extracting members of the community of life all severely disrupt and even eliminate ecosystems. They result in the poisoning of water, land and air and the displacement of whole communities. The most vulnerable (Earth, laborers, the displaced, etc.) are deemed expendable, with the greatest damage done to those already marginalized by race, ethnicity and money. Extraction of minerals and energy are not replenishable. There is no cycle of life, no planting and replanting of the food cycle, there is only taking of Earth’s limited resources. With extractivism, ecosystems will continue to be radically changed, even destroyed, speeding up the climate emergency and its effects.

As we struggle to cope with our climate emergency, COVID, racism, and unrestrained extractivism, we must engage with into the hard conversations and decisions and reframing of our understanding. It is very difficult to change values and habits and sustain new ones when we go at it alone and when we are listening predominantly to the loudest voice and extractive industries who continue to make the business case for extractives. It is important to share in the process by which we challenge and change, but to do so in a way that inspires us. It is change that inspires us that will keep us committed and engaged, while changing out of fear and anxiety will serve only to paralyze us.

We are in a new kairos moment. We are called to wake up or risk losing something indefinitely. This space of hope compels us forward so that we do not get stuck in a place of fear and anxiety. We call ourselves to remember that we have been here before and we can do it again. This time we go deeper in our conversions; this time we seek a deeper transformation. We begin by exploring the underlying values and inspirations that have already compelled us to change a habitual way of thinking and acting. We ask ourselves: What ways have we already changed and deepened our consciousness in favor of Earth’s health? In what ways have our current actions led to deeper changes?

Call to a New Consciousness: The Journey of Transformation

As a community, we have continually engaged in deepening our commitment to conversion. We long to live in right relationship with all peoples and with all of creation and this compels us to seek out a renewed way of seeing, a new consciousness. In this time, we are part of a global system that perpetuates the destructive effects of extractive industries along with their devastating impact on people, communities and Earth. The core business and the extractive development model of fossil fuel companies and mining companies are inherently hazardous to people, communities and Earth. It has devastating impacts on water, land, air, biodiversity (80% of loss globally), on the very life force of Mother Earth. It is a primary cause of our climate crisis. Respect for our interdependence with all creation is ruptured by extractive industries.

Indigenous peoples, who have lived for thousands of years in the lands of present-day Latin America, are victims of extractivism. They have experienced death threats, assassinations of beloved leaders and family members, and the destruction and poisoning of their sacred land, air and water. Whole communities have been forced out of their homes and land. Black, brown and indigenous communities in the United States must choose between their own physical health or making sometimes economically impossible decisions to leave an area as fossil fuel companies make decisions with no regard for environmental impact.

The call to a new consciousness is a challenging one. It requires us to move out of our habitual ways of thinking and acting for many of us driven by Western thinking and economic models. It requires us to engage in new experiences that unsettle us and summon us to listen deeply to what stirs in us. And it calls us to critically examine the ideologies, prejudices and assumptions that inform our worldview.

Questions tug at our hearts: What makes it difficult for me to move out of my comfort zone? What keeps me there? What attracts me if I let go? What gives me joy in choosing differently? Whose stories do I not hear? What does a commitment to climate integrity ask of me at this time? It calls us to a more engaged solidarity especially with Black, indigenous and people of color, who are disproportionately impacted by extractives industries. It asks us to reclaim our interdependence and harmony with Earth and to understand deeply the devastating impact of extractive industries on the flourishing of the whole community of life.

The journey toward a new consciousness opens us in vulnerable ways so that we can hear, center and respond to the cries of the poor and of Earth. In this journey of little conversions, we will find ourselves changing our habitual ways of understanding, thinking and acting. Systemic change does not begin with some grand transformation; it begins with new understanding and these little conversions. While we move to claim our communal prophetic voice and prophetic actions, we remember that deeper transformation must be held and sustained by our solidarity with those most impacted by extractive industries, especially communities of color, and by an engaged and supportive community. This deep kind of transformation calls us to live together more conscientiously on an individual, communal and corporate level.

So how do we begin this journey toward a new consciousness? And how will we empower our new consciousness through acts of solidarity with Earth and her suffering peoples?

Welcome to Session One of Awakening to a New Consciousness. Please see below for information that will help guide you as we begin this theological reflection process together.

Session One Materials

Contact extractivism@sistersofmercy.org with any questions about this process.