Laudato Si Action Plan
Mercy’s Third Year Action Plan
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Social Justice Tag: Racism

A monthly series of in-depth, curated articles exploring Mercy's Critical Concerns and their intersection with current events and the work of justice.

June 2025

Articles from Mercy:

Local Justice News & Upcoming Mercy Events:

Justice Resources & Links

Vampires, Sharecropping, and the Real History of Juneteenth

John Charles McAllister-Ashley; Institute Justice Team

A reflection on the film Sinners, the legacy of forced labor after slavery, and why Juneteenth still matters today

About a month ago, some friends and I went to go see the Ryan Coogler film Sinners. On the surface, it’s a Black film about blues music and vampires in Mississippi. However, if you watch with a close eye, it goes much deeper.  The movie quietly (and sometimes loudly) displayed the horrors of slavery, and how even more than 50 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, many Black people in the South were still trapped in systems that felt a lot like slavery.

Instead of slavery, the new term “sharecropping” was adopted. Unsurprisingly, the effects of generations of atrocities trickled through the Bible belt and beyond. Black people who couldn’t afford to leave the South after slavery ended were stuck doing the same work they had done before, now for pennies. Some were even paid in wooden nickels that could only be used at the plantation’s commissary.

In Sinners, you really get a snapshot of what life was like for poor Black people in southern Mississippi almost 70 years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. The majority of the people in that film were sharecroppers working long days in the hot sun for slave wages. And to be clear, this isn’t a critique of the movie. In fact, the opposite. For me, it was a sheer reminder that although slavery ended “on paper,” not all Black people were actually free. Without access to education and better opportunities, staying on the plantation was often the only choice they had.

There is a loophole in the 13th Amendment, which forbids chattel slavery across the United States – except as a form of criminal punishment. When you think about the 13th Amendment justifying slavery for criminals, a lot of petty laws regarding Black people in the southern states begin to make sense. This is the only way the South would survive, as slavery and free labor were the backbone of the economy. The Antebellum South was not going to give up that way of life without introducing anti-Black laws and additional barriers to prevent access to justice for newly freed Black Americans.

Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1st, 1863, but it was not until June 19th,1865 that this news of freedom had reached Galveston, Texas. This is the day that we celebrate – the day when everyone was finally free. This is why Juneteenth is so important to many Black Americans and should be important to all Americans. Similar to the Fourth of July, Juneteenth represents so much more than a day in history. It represents a legacy of what Black people have brought to this country. 

In the wise words of the Grandmother of Juneteenth, Opal Lee, “Juneteenth is not a Black holiday, but an American holiday. It is a second Independence Day that reminds us freedom is a journey, not a destination.”

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Protecting Children and Vulnerable Adults from Abuse in the Philippines

Helen Libo-on, RSM; Institute Justice Team

Conditions of poverty and other challenges in the Philippines are driving people who might otherwise never consider human trafficking to participate out of desperation, in some cases even exploiting their own family members. This article describes some ongoing efforts to combat child and vulnerable adult abuse in the Philippines, specifically focusing on initiatives undertaken in Northern Mindanao, particularly within the dioceses of Dipolog, Ozamiz, Pagadian, Iligan, and the Prelature of Marawi (DOPIM). The alarming prevalence of child trafficking, exploitation of young women seeking overseas employment, and other forms of abuse necessitates a multi-pronged approach involving community education, collaboration with religious institutions, and engagement with law enforcement.

The primary initiative has been a series of seminars on the Safeguarding of Children and Vulnerable Adults, spearheaded by Sr. Patrocinia Angay, RSM. These seminars address the critical issue of child trafficking, highlighting specific cases such as the exploitation of young girls in areas between Iligan and Cagayan de Oro, and the deceptive recruitment of young women for exploitative work abroad.

The seminars have reached numerous schools, parishes, and church organizations within the DOPIM region, thanks to collaborations with the Diocese of Iligan and the Sisters Association in Mindanao. Furthermore, a meeting of priests and religious leaders included impactful testimonies from participants who had encountered exploited young women in nightclubs, underscoring the pervasive nature of the problem and the need for continued awareness and intervention.

Crucially, these efforts extend beyond religious institutions. Collaboration with local law enforcement agencies, such as the police, is underway to ensure effective reporting and prosecution of perpetrators. This collaborative approach is vital for a comprehensive solution.

While the problem of child and vulnerable adult abuse remains significant, the initiatives outlined here demonstrate a strong commitment to addressing this issue. The combined efforts of religious leaders, community organizations, and law enforcement agencies offer hope for a future where children and vulnerable adults are protected from exploitation and harm. Continued collaboration and expansion of these programs are essential to achieving lasting positive change. Further investigations are underway into the specific locations mentioned and the development of targeted interventions.

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Critical Considerations

What’s really driving border enforcement?

Karen Donahue, RSM

Earlier this month, the militarized Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in Los Angeles and the subsequent deployment of National Guard personnel and Marines in response to peaceful protests sent shock waves through L.A., California, and the nation. Also in the news at this time, but an item that received much less attention, was a report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego that carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration in the atmosphere peaked above 430 parts per million (ppm). This is significantly above the 350 ppm that climate scientists say is the upper limit if the planet is to avoid catastrophic global warming.

A recent article by journalist and border specialist Tod Miller, posted on the TomDispatch website, explores the interconnection between migration and global climate change. Miller reflects on his experiences of visiting a drought-stricken area of Mexico and his attendance at the 2025 Border Security Expo, a trade show that brings ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) together with private industry or what Miller calls the Border- Industrial Complex.

He says, “Then came the realization that gave me pause: although that devastated Sierra Tarahumara terrain and the Border Security Expo couldn’t be more different, they are, in fact, also intimately connected. After all, Sierra Tarahumara represents the all too palpable and devastating reality of climate change and the way it’s already beginning to displace people, while the Expo represented my country’s most prominent response to that displacement (and the Global North’s more generally). For the United States — increasingly so in the age of Donald Trump — the only answer to the climate crisis and its mass displacement of people is yet more border enforcement.”

Miller notes that the U.S., the largest historic carbon emitter, spends eleven times more on border and immigration enforcement than it does on countering climate change. “U.S. climate policy now boils down to this: reducing fossil fuel extraction and consumption are far less important (if important at all) than the creation of a profitable border and immigration apparatus.”

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Article Archive

2025

June

Vampires, Sharecropping, and the Real History of Juneteenth

Protecting Children and Vulnerable Adults from Abuse in the Philippines

Critical Considerations:

What’s really driving border enforcement?

May

A letter to Pope Francis

Critical Considerations:

Is this really an emergency?

Trump’s attacks on women

April

The cultural battle advances

Critical Considerations:

What’s going on with tariffs?

Water extractivism in Palestine

March

Hope for Panama in truth

Deportation stigma in Jamaica

Critical Considerations:

Who benefits from tax cuts? Who pays?

April is SWANA Heritage Month

NETWORK webinar on U.S. federal policy

February

National declaration of emergency in Bajo Aguán

Critical Considerations:

Has the United States declared war on immigrants?

What energy emergency?

January

If you make a mess, clean it up! (Advocacy success in NY)

Youth claim climate victory in Montana court

Critical Considerations:

Was January 1, 2025 a wake-up call?

(click years to expand)

2024

December

Gender and climate justice

Critical Considerations:

Is the United States becoming a plutocracy?

Making nuclear weapons taboo

November

Critical Considerations:

What happened on November 5, 2024?

The Ecological Debt

October

Overturning the Chevron deference

Critical Considerations:

Who are the Israeli settlers and what motivates them?

Assassination of Honduran water protector deeply grieves Sisters of Mercy

September

God walks with his people: National Migration Week September 23–29

Critical Considerations:

What does CEO compensation say about corporate priorities?

Anxiety – election season can heighten it!

August

Critical Considerations:

What is Project 2025 all about?

Working to stop weapon exports to Haiti

Beyond Voting:

Participating in Elections, part 2

July

Critical Considerations:

Is there a better way to spend $91 billion?

Education, Agriculture, & Emigration in the Philippines

Beyond Voting:

Participating in Elections, part 1

June

Critical Considerations:

Are we creating a prison-industrial complex?

Conscience

Mercy student videos address the Critical Concerns

May

Critical Considerations:

Degrowth is the only sane survival plan

Argentina and the government of hate

Listening to a chorus of voices

April

Critical Considerations:

An Israeli Jesuit reflects on war in the Holy Land

Advocacy Success! Expanded Background Checks for Gun Sales

March

Military spending and national (in)security

February

The challenge Gaza war presents for American Jews

January

Gaza war threatens credibility of West’s commitment to human rights and the rule of law

2023

December

Climate Summit fails to adequately respond to gravity of climate crisis

November

Critical Considerations:

The dangers of conflating Anti-Zionism and Antisemitism

Red flag laws in jeopardy: faith voices speak to save them

October

Jewish and Palestinian perspectives on Gaza crisis

September

U.S. China tensions impact efforts to address climate change

August

When Good Economic Policy Isn’t Enough

July

States Move to Weaken Protections for Child Workers

June

Corporate Lobbyists at Climate Talks

May

Electric Vehicle Transition Challenges

April

Repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery

March

Misrepresenting War

February

The Rise of Christian Nationalism

January

How the News is Reported Affects What We Know

2022

December

How Corporations Took Over the Government

November

The Independent State Legislature Theory Explained

October

The Next Phase in the Voting Wars

Local Justice News & Upcoming Events

Check back soon!

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Mercy Justice Resource Pages

Peace & Justice Calendars

View the current month’s Mercy Peace & Justice Calendar on our website.

Download Past Calendars
2025

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

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These are some of the ways in which the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas will more fully live Laudato Si’ in 2025. To see the third year action plan click here.

Responding to the Cry of the Earth

The climate sustainability director will:

  • Estimate initial annual carbon emissions from utilities (e.g., electricity, gas, and water) and vehicle usage throughout the Institute;
  • Work with the solar installation company to implement agreed-upon solar and battery design for the Belmont, NC, solar array project; and 
  • Work with a contractor to stabilize the shoreline at Mercy by the Sea Spiritual Retreat and Conference Center to prevent future erosion from coastal storms and sea-level rise.

Responding to the Cry of the Poor

The Justice Team will deepen education and advocacy about the harms of extractivism to communities and the environment through: 

  • Engaging communities beyond the Sisters of Mercy in small groups using our Awakening to a New Consciousness on Extractivism resources;
  • Accompanying communities most harmed by extractivism, including through local extractivism immersion experiences; and 
  • Giving special attention to water injustices experienced by communities on the front lines of extractive industries, in partnership with Mercy Global Action’s water justice initiative. 
  • The Justice Team will organize immersion experiences at the U.S.-Mexico border to expand the number of sisters, associates, companions and co-workers who are educated about immigration policy and the reality at the border and connections between immigration and environmental and climate justice.  
  • Mercy Investment Services will expand and deepen the integration of environmental, social and governance investment strategies by:
    • Actively allocating capital to address diversity gaps amongst decision-makers and financial access within the Inclusive Opportunities Fund;  
    • Continuing expanding the emerging managers program supporting firms owned or products managed by people with diverse or underrepresented backgrounds; and  
    • Deepening Mercy Partnership Fund’s continued dedication to racial and gender equity as well as those that emphasize international opportunities.

Ecological Economics

Mercy Investment Services will:

  • Continue to ground our investment actions in seeking prophetic change in climate action and solutions;
  • Partner with other investors to engage corporations on water stewardship, greenhouse gas emissions, plastics use, biodiversity and other important issues; and  
  • Use our position as a faith-based investor to defend the rights of investors to choose investments that care for the Earth.

Sustainable Lifestyles

  • The Director of Climate and Sustainability will develop and update flyers to create awareness of and provide practical sustainable lifestyle tips related to meetings and events, office supplies and electronics, health and wellness, emergency management and sustainability on a tight budget. 
  • The Justice Team and Climate and Sustainability Director will continue the monthly Mercy Tips to Care for Earth. 

Ecological Education

  • Mercy Education System of the Americas plans to:
    • Revamp the environmental science course in its Mercy Learning Online program, specifically the water lesson, to incorporate resources from Mercy Global Action; 
    • Launch a monthly column in its weekly newsletter highlighting sustainability initiatives across Mercy schools;
    • Enhance sustainability efforts at meetings and events by being mindful of supplies ordered and encouraging participants to bring reusable water bottles; and 
    • Promote active participation in Laudato Si pilgrimages across the schools.
  • A Mercy associate in Guyana will socialize her guidebook and set of advocacy tools for communities to understand the risks of the growing oil and gas industry in her country, and that will become a template for similar education elsewhere.
  • The Climate and Sustainability Director will visit the sisters and staff to discuss concerns related to climate and sustainability as well as ongoing projects, and also serve as a resource for Mercy ministries and other religious congregations.
  • The Justice Team will invite Mercy high school, college and university students to submit short videos on reducing consumption to better care for earth and on the positive impact that women have in the world. The winning videos will be showcased on our website.
  •  The Justice Team will plan a blog series to highlight the ways in which sisters, associates, companions and co-workers are hearing the cry of Earth and the cry of people who are poor.

Ecological Spirituality

  • The Justice Team, along with partner Catholic organizations in the U.S., will promote and provide support to sisters, associates, companions and ministries organizing Laudato Si pilgrimages to celebrate the encyclical’s 10th anniversary. 
  • The Justice Team will promote Laudato Si Animator trainings to equip sisters, associates and co-workers to shift consciousness of their communities around environmental and climate justice. 

Community Participation and Empowerment

  • The Justice Team will engage in advocacy and education leading up to COP 30 in Brazil with partners from ecclesial networks (REPAM, REMAM and REGCHAG) and the Churches and Mining Network. 
  • The Justice Team will lead U.S. advocacy among congregations of women religious and interfaith partners to stem deforestation, address the harms of mining in the energy transition, and support environmental protections and climate policies.  
View last year’s grand prize winning video. (*Note: the contest themes have changed for 2025.)

The Mercy Justice Team needs you, a Mercy student, to create a short, social media style PSA (public service announcement) video – think Reels or TikTok – that reflects the Sisters of Mercy’s Critical Concerns. Put those creative ideas and video skills to work and you could win $500!

How do women impact the world for good?

How can individuals reduce their consumption to better care for the Earth?

What is a policy or campaign that could help people reduce their consumption?

Who are the heroines of the Mercy Critical Concerns?

To receive information, updates and reminders about this year’s contest, complete this form and we’ll be in touch. Click here to learn rules for entry and how to upload your video.

View the grand prize winning videos from 2023. (*Note: the contest themes have changed for 2025.)

Purpose

For this year’s contest we are seeking short, PSA style videos (30 to 90 seconds) that are suitable for sharing on social media platforms such as TikTok or Reels. Video entries must focus on one of these topics:

The Power of Women
  • Videos should reflect the charism of Mercy and highlight the gifts and contributions that women, either individually or collectively, bring to society.
  • Videos could promote the contributions of women, tell the story, past or present, of a woman or women engaged in Mercy or justice, or dream about the future for women in society.
Reducing Consumption
  • Videos should reflect the Mercy Critical Concerns, especially the Critical Concern for Earth, but do not need to identify the Critical Concerns specifically.
  • Videos should encourage actions toward reducing consumption either on the personal or societal level.
  • Videos could be inspirational or motivational, provide a ‘how-to’ process for reducing consumption or provide information about the consequences of conspicuous consumption.

Contest Webinar

Watch our 17 minute webinar to learn more about this year’s contest.

Who Can Enter

Any student or group of students, high school age or older, enrolled in Mercy high schools, colleges/universities, or involved in a Mercy-affiliated ministry.

Use this tip-sheet to help you as you begin the process of creating your video.

Format

Read the complete rules

Length: 30 to 90 seconds

Language: English or Spanish

Other Requirements

1. Title. Each video must have a title. The title must be indicated on the submission form. The title does not need to be included in the video itself.

2. Credits. Credits must include the name of those involved in the creation of the video. The credits must also include citations for any images, audio, or text used in the video that is not original. The credits do not need to be included in the video itself, but must be included in the submission form.

The Sisters of Mercy may delete title and credit screens before posting videos on social media.

Entrants are strongly encouraged to use original footage and graphics as much as possible.

Important Note on Rules: In order to honor copyright protections, rules regarding use of images and music were updated for the 2022 contest and remain in effect for 2025. See the complete rules for details.

Deadline

All entries must be received by April 1, 2025.

Prizes

A panel of judges will use these criteria to select the winning video. Individual winners will receive financial awards. The Grand Prize Winner receives $500.

Winning entries may be featured on the Sisters of Mercy Institute web site and social media channels. Winners and their winning institution will be formally announced.

Interested?

If you think you might be interested in entering this contest, fill out this form to receive contest information and updates.

Past Winners

Click here to view all of our past winners.

In our first U. S. presidential election year since the insurrection on January 6, 2021, it is prudent to ask questions about the safety of our democracy and the steps citizens can take to protect it. In this space we are curating resources for education and action in 2024. The following resources do not endorse or oppose any political party, candidate, or PAC.

Tools for Voters

  • Designed for use on college campuses, our Mercy Voter Reflection Guide helps young people, and all people, use Mercy values when evaluating candidates. Scan and share the QR code to access the guide on a phone.
  • The Voter Toolkit from Faiths United to Save Democracy will equip you to educate and empower voters in your community. A product of the Skinner Leadership Institute, Sojourners and the Center for Faith and Justice at Georgetown University.
  • Project 2025 in contrast with Catholic Social Teaching from NETWORK explores the important elements between the contrasting visions of Project 2025 and Catholic Social Teaching.
  • Election Protection-866-OUR-VOTE. Find out all you need to know about elections in 2024. Have questions about voter registration deadlines, requesting absentee or mail-in ballots, or how to vote in-person during early voting or on Election Day? Call or text 866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683) to speak with a trained Election Protection volunteer.
Pray With Us

Please join the Mercy Community in praying daily for voters to consider the common good in their choices for national, state and local leaders; to treat with respect even those who hold differing opinions about the direction of our country; and to commit ourselves to a peaceful transfer of power after the election.

Let us be Mercy at this time through our prayer, rhetoric and actions at this time of potential national stress.

The Sisters of Mercy of the Americas launched a Vote with Mercy initiative to encourage U.S. citizens to vote in the November elections and to consider a variety of factors and values in determining their decisions.  

As people of faith, we are called to witness for others. As Sisters of Mercy, that witness is expressed throughout Catholic teaching and in our Critical Concerns of immigration, nonviolence, care for our Earth, racism and the education, health and spiritual needs of women and girls. A centerpiece of the initiative is a video highlighting these concerns, available on the website and social media platforms and featured in advertising.

We have also produced a short video on guidelines for not for profit organizations and political activity by members of religious congregations.

Webinars

Georgetown University

The Experts’ Guide to Free and Fair Elections

Voting and Our Common Home: Reflections from the Catholic Tradition

Election Work

White Supremacy and American Christianity

PBS

Brookings

JustFaith Ministries

More Websites

  • Voting and Democracy, from NETWORK, includes a series of blog posts about elections and politics.
  • Vote411, from League of Women Voters, provides information and resources for participating in local and national elections.
  • Ensure Every American Can Vote, from the Brennan Center for Justice, explores voting rights issues.

Articles

Documentary Film

God & Country is a 90-minute film that explores the dangers of Christian Nationalism, featuring prominent Christian voices including Sister Simone Campbell and Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II.

Learn more about the film here.

View a discussion with the producers of the film here.

Podcasts

Books

Raise your voice with ours!

Explore our current advocacy efforts and get involved.

Take Action Today

Join us as a Mercy Advocate for Justice! Click the “Take Action Today” button to the left. Each individual who responds to a call for legislative action or policy change increases the volume of our Mercy voice in the halls of power. Signing up online is easy and customizable. Alerts are available via email or text message. Advocates can choose to receive notices about a single issue or the entire menu of options. Please invite people from your circles and networks to join our efforts by sharing this link with them today: https://sistersofmercy.org/mercy-for-justice/action-alerts/ 

LCWR’s Transforming Grace: The Work of Transformative Justice invites participants to take responsibility for the personal and collective responses we can make in the challenges we will encounter during the national election period.

Student Videos

Each year, students at Mercy sponsored schools are invited to enter a Social Justice Video Contest and put their creative ideas and skills to work by sharing stories of the Sisters of Mercy’s Critical Concerns. In 2024, some of the videos focused on voting. Here are three videos that took home honors for this year’s contest.

2nd Place
Carli Amos, Aiden Arrington and Luciana Elliott
“Use Your Voice!”
Gwynedd Mercy Academy High School, Lower Gwynedd, Pennsylvania
3rd Place
Riley Wichman and Angela Thiel
“Vote with Faith and Mercy”
Mercy High School, Middletown, Connecticut
Honorable Mention – Calliope Beatty, Malley Connor, Addison Foster and Grace Tronoski
“Be a Hero and VOTE with faith!”
Gwynedd Mercy Academy High School, Lower Gwynedd, Pennsylvania

These are some of the ways in which the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas will more fully live Laudato Si’ in 2024. To see the second year action plan click here.

Responding to the Cry of the Earth

  • The climate sustainability director will:
    • Collect utility usage data for smaller residences (i.e., apartments and houses) located throughout the United States. 
    • Expand community solar subscriptions to many of our houses and apartments for which such programs are available. 
    • Continue the electric vehicle (EV) pilot project at Merion, PA, with the purchase of an additional vehicle and the installation of additional EV chargers.  One other location will be selected to house an EV. Official guidance regarding the use, maintenance, and charging of EVs, along with concerns regarding metal mining, will be developed and implemented. 
    • Finalize guidance regarding the use of various sustainable and compostable alternatives to single-use plastic products.  A pilot location will be selected to test the overall process for implementing various parts of the guidance and determining what is needed (in addition to the installation of water-filling stations) in order to make the elimination of certain plastic products practical.  Complete the pilot solar project on the Belmont, NC, campus by the end of 2024.
  • Mercy Focus on Haiti aims to support the construction of 10 cisterns per month in the Gros Marne region, for the collection of rain water, using locally available materials. Cistern beneficiaries will receive training in the fundamentals of vegetable gardening, tree planting and reforestation, supporting both food production and the opportunity to sell surplus at market.

Responding to the Cry of the Poor

  • The Justice Team will deepen education and advocacy about the harms of extractivism to communities and the environment through: 
    • Mapping of extractivism near locations where the Institute has a significant presence; 
    • Educating the wider Mercy community about the experiences of communities most harmed by extractivism; 
    • Sharing more widely the statement on extractivism distributed among Chapter participants; 
    • Expanding our knowledge of extractivism to include practices such as agribusiness extracting nutrients from the land and the tourism industry dredging ports for cruise ships; and  
    • Solidarity and accompaniment of communities most harmed by extractivism
  • Sisters will continue participating in ecclesial networks (ie, in Meso-America and the regions of El Gran Chaco y el Acuífero Guaraní in South America) and will educate the rest of the congregation about how the Church is accompanying communities in these critical eco-systems.   
  • The Justice Team will participate in the “we are going to change the history of the climate and the planet!” campaign with the peoples of the Amazon in advance of international climate talks (COP30) in Belem, Brazil, in 2025.
  • Mercy Volunteer Corps has placed a volunteer yet again at Sanctuary Farm in Philadelphia and will offer short-term volunteer experiences at Mercy Ecological Center in Vermont.
  • Mercy Investment Services will expand and deepen the integration of environmental, social and governance investment strategies by:
    • Actively allocating capital to address diversity gaps amongst decision-makers and financial access within the Inclusive Opportunities Fund;  
    • Expanding the emerging managers program supporting firms owned or products managed by people with diverse or underrepresented backgrounds;  
    • Deepening Mercy Partnership Fund’s continued dedication to racial and gender equity as well as those that emphasize international opportunities; and  
    • Using our shareholder voice to explicitly call on companies to mitigate their impacts on people of color and to increase equity for disadvantaged communities.
  • Mercy Focus on Haiti will complete the fourth cohort of its poverty eradication program for women, and raise funds and set the stage for the fifth cohort. Participants from the first cohort will be able to create Village Savings and Loan Associations, which was offered to later cohorts as safe places to save money and access small loans. The first cohort participants also will be offered a tablet-based training program to develop the basics of finance and business skills.   Mercy Focus on Haiti will arrange for a physician member from the U.S. to make virtual visits with residents and walk-throughs of Bon Maison Samaritain, a house for persons who are elderly and infirm or mentally ill. Deteriorating conditions in Haiti have prevented in-person visits from the U.S.

Ecological Economics

  • Mercy Investment Services will:
    • Participate in learning opportunities to deepen our understanding of Catholic investing through documents such as Mensuram Bonam and Laudate Deum; 
    • Increase funding of mission-based environmental, social and governance investment managers and thematic managers in the equity fund;  
    • Originate additional commitments to impact managers in the Environmental Solutions Fund, which invests in renewable energy, energy and water efficiency, materials recycling, green buildings and sustainable agriculture;  
    • Commit additional investments to projects whose primary thematic area is environmental sustainability, impacts from the extractive sector or migration, or that address a just transition to a low‐carbon future in the Mercy Partnership Fund;  
    • Partner with other investors to engage corporations on water stewardship, greenhouse gas emissions, plastics use, biodiversity and other important issues; and  engage with other like-minded impact investors through the Catholic Impact Investing Collaborative, which is led by Francesco Collaborative, and through continued leadership within the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. 

Sustainable Lifestyles

  • The Justice Team and Climate and Sustainability Director will start exploring possibilities for working with other congregations of women religious to influence practices of dining service companies who serve our convents, retirement centers and other facilities. 
  • The Justice Team and Climate and Sustainability Director will continue the  Mercy Tips to Care for Earth as a monthly feature on the website. 

Ecological Education

  • Mercy Education has planned several activities for 2024:
    • “Generation Mercy,” an online meeting for students who are involved in Earth initiatives/clubs at their school, in the first half of the year; 
    • A commitment to highlight Earth in their newsletter at least 1 issue per month; 
    • Promote Mercy Meatless Mondays for the Lenten season; and 
    • Share some suggestions for Earth challenges for schools (i.e. zero waste meetings) to try to implement before Earth Day in April, then share about these in the newsletter/social media.
  • The Justice Team will organize an immersion trip to a region of western Pennsylvania experiencing an expansion of fracking and petrochemical facilities. 
  • The Justice Team will organize three immersion experiences at the U.S.-Mexico border to expand the number of sisters, associates, companions and co-workers who are educated about immigration policy and the reality at the border. One of these experiences will be solely for staff and board members of Mercy Investment Services.  
  • A Mercy associate in Guyana will develop a guidebook and set of advocacy tools for communities to understand the risks of the growing oil and gas industry in her country, and that will become a template for similar education elsewhere.  

Ecological Spirituality

  • The Justice Team will promote Laudato Si animators’ trainings and create a network of Mercy animators to work together and support one another. 
  • The Institute will participate in the Leadership Conference of Women Religious’ exploration and implementation of transformative justice work. 

Community Participation and Empowerment

  • The Justice Team will educate our network on the issues and the importance of voting our values in advance of the 2024 elections in the United States. 
  • The Justice Team will participate in a newly forming collaborative of Catholic organizations engaged in environmental and climate justice education, advocacy and practices.