The Society of Jesus has created a new group to discuss and spread the core message of the Encyclical Letter “Laudato Si”. Environmental concerns are one of the four great spiritual orientations that guide the celebrations of the Ignatian Year, father Fernando Azpiroz recalls.
The missionaries of the Society of Jesus in Macau have promoted the creation of a specialized group focused on the discussion and dissemination of Laudato Si, Pope Francis’ encyclical that placed environmental concerns and threatening anthropogenic behaviour at the center of the Catholic Church’s spiritual orientations.
The decision gained momentum after the Jesuit Residency opened its doors to a group of members of the Lusophone Scouts Group of Macau. The initiative, which took place at the biological garden cultivated by the missionaries of the Society of Jesus, was not replicated ever since, but the aim of the Society is to place the message of “Laudato Si” at the heart of its pedagogical and spiritual action, father Fernando Azpiroz told “O Clarim”: “That experience with the Portuguese speaking Scouts, it was an isolated activity. We are still trying to think about the way we can give continuity to this sort of initiatives. We have a group, which we call the Laudato Si group, which meets every month, but this group has not yet come out with any concrete plan. I do hope, nevertheless, that we might promote something during the next semester”, the Argentinian priest says.
The concern for “our common home” which is at the core of the message of “Laudato Si” is also one of the four great spiritual orientations that guide the celebrations of the Ignatian Year. The Society of Jesus intends to promote, in the beginning of April, the initiative “Learning with Ignatius to listen and respond to the cry of the Earth”.
Before, at the end of October, the Jesuit mission in Macau will embrace the cause, fear and pain of the poorest, an initiative that will be largely directed at those who are, in the Special Administrative Justice, the most oppressed, the non-resident workers coming from places such as Indonesia, the Philippines or Vietnam: “The next activity of the Ignatian year will take place in October. The theme will be “Learning with Ignatius to listen and respond to the cry of the poor”, Father Azpiroz explains. “In this activity we want to start from Ignatius experience, both as a poor and with the poor, to reflect and understand the second universal apostolic priority of the Society Jesus: to walk with the poor, the outcast of the world, those whose dignity has been violated in a mission of reconciliation and justice. This activity will take place on October 23rd in Ricci College”, the Argentinian priest clarifies.
The Ignatian Year celebrations, which recall the beginning of the process of spiritual transformation in which St. Ignatius of Loyola embarked on 500 years ago, began on May 20th, with the celebration of a solemn Mass in St. Joseph’s Seminary and Church.
On June 5th, the Jesuit mission in Macau promoted, at Escola Estrela do Mar, the first of four major initiatives of a spiritual matrix that the Society of Jesus intends to promote in the context of the Ignatian Jubilee, an initiative aimed at young people and called “Learning with Ignatius to listen and discern different voices in our hearts”.
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