The Society of Jesus will organize a workshop on December 11th on the teachings of Laudato Si’. Aimed at lay people, the seminar is an invitation to better understand the apostolic exhortation with which Pope Francis seeks to inspire and mobilize Catholics worldwide to take care of our Common Home and achieve climatic and ecological justice.
Marco Carvalho
The workshop, which takes place at the Jesuit Residence, right beside St. Augustine’s Church is aimed, first and foremost, at lay people who take an active part in the day to day management of the local Church affairs and its long-term goal is to promote the formation of a group to act on climate change, drawing inspiration from Laudato Si’ and the objectives listed by Pope Francis in the encyclical letter.
“Unlike other initiatives we promoted, this seminar is not aimed at the younger generations. It’s aimed at grown-ups, a small group of 23, 24 adults, no more than that. It is directed at people who are involved with the Church, who carry out functions of responsibility. Basically, taking Laudato Si’ as its starting point, we want to understand how we can learn to dialogue directly with nature, to listen to the voice of nature, to the cry of nature, as described by the Pope,” Father Fernando Azpiroz told O CLARIM.
“This is a small initiative and our aim is, first and foremost, to give climate change some reflection and to form a group of people who can promote some initiatives, so that we can understand how these challenges the Pope addresses in Laudato Si’ are affecting Macau. We still don’t know exactly how this will proceed, but that’s the idea,” current Superior of the Society of Jesus in Macau claims.
The decision comes at a moment when the Jesuits are celebrating the 500th anniversary of Saint Ignatius’ conversion, the fateful day in which Ignatius, the soldier was struck by a cannonball and began his transformation into Ignatius, the pilgrim. Care for our Common Home is one of the great priorities of the Society of Jesus in terms of pastoral action
The workshop that will take place on December 11th is not part of the year long program with which the local disciples of Saint Ignatius of Loyola are celebrating the Ignatian Year, but the message of Laudato Si’ is so close to the philosophy of the Jesuits that the two initiatives can be easily intertwined: “In the framework of the Ignatian Year we elected four Universal Apostolic Preferences upon which we should act, but the structure and the message of Laudato Si’ is so close to our way of thinking that it is not difficult to establish a connection between these two aspects. The structure of the encyclical letter, the structure of Laudato Si’, is based on experience, reflection, response to reflection through action and, finally, celebration. Laudato Si’ is, pretty much, based on Ignatian pedagogy. It is very easy to establish a link between the two,” Fernando Azpiroz recognizes.The aim to contemplate on the future of the planet and on how to take care of our Common Home was not, nevertheless, forgotten in the context of the celebrations of the Ignatian Year. A major initiative should take place in April in Coloane: “This workshop is an independent initiative. It is focused on Laudato Si’. But in April we are going to have an event inspired by our Universal Priority number 2, care for our Common Home. It will be a larger event that we are going to promote in Coloane together with Ricci College,” the Superior of the Society of Jesus told O CLARIM.
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