As we prepare to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’ encyclical on May 24, the important teaching urging care for our common home, we invite the Mercy community to deeper engagement through a series of stories showcasing how sisters and others have responded to the encyclical. Their inspiring stories are part of the Institute’s participation in the Jubilee Year, when Pope Francis calls us to be Pilgrims of Hope.
By Sister Nieves Jiménez, RSM
Our insistence that each human being is an image of God should not make us overlook the fact that each creature has its own purpose. None is superfluous. … Anyone who has grown up in the hills or used to sit by the spring to drink or played outdoors in the neighborhood square; going back to these places is a chance to recover something of their true selves.
-Laudato Si’, #84
In the beautiful tropical forests of northwestern Panama, Sister Edith González and I have walked alongside the Ngäbe inidigenous people embracing the Critical Concerns of the Sisters of Mercy and the call of Pope Francis to care for the earth. In St. Vincent de Paul Parish, in Soloy, within the Ngäbe-Buglé Region, we focus on this mission.
Recently, when Father Joseph Fitzgerald was in the parish, reflecting on Laudato Si’, he posed this question: How can we motivate children in catechism, in school and in our preaching so they internalize the message of Laudato Si’?
So, we put this mission into action.
We have developed many activities to help educate and increase awareness of the natural world that we rely on, including:
🌱 Reforestation: We have distributed thousands of seedlings and organized training and planting days.
🚮 Community cleaning: We promote garbage collection as a family, teaching how to take care of our environment.
💧 Water protection: We take the children to visit the streams where they collect water for daily consumption, and encourage them to reflect on the importance of conserving these resources.
✝️ Ecological Stations of the Cross: We pray the Stations of the Cross by the edge of the creek where people bathe and wash their clothes. At each station, silence and contemplation allow us to feel God’s presence in nature. At the end, we asked the children, “What sounds did you hear and what did you see during the Stations of the Cross of God’s creation?”
The answers were wonderful: “the murmur of the water,” “a butterfly”, “a little fish swimming”, “the song of a bird,” “the clouds moving in the sky.” What a beautiful reminder from these innocent souls of the beauty and fragility of our common home.
As we looked for more creative ways to convey this message in a way young people can relate, Father Joseph asked his niece to draw different pictures of monkeys and we chose one we named “Moly” to serve as a symbol and an inspiration to the entire community. She helps remind us that caring for the environment is living in harmony with God’s creation.
As we prepare to commemorate 10 years living the message of Laudato Si’, we continue to share in a spirit of fraternity and responsibility for the care of creation, and that “Soil, water, mountains: everything is, as it were, a caress of God. (Laudato Si 84)
To remember this, we always remember what Moly says about our community: “Besiko Bonkrabe” (Our beautiful district).
Praise be to you, my Lord!