The Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice has been busy preparing a submission to the Citizen’s Assembly on the topic of “how the State can make Ireland a leader in tackling climate change”. The Assembly will meet from September 30th to October 1st and submissions are welcome from the public before August 11st. Visit this link for more information. The Centre is a member of the Stop Climate Chaos coalition, and was actively involved in preparing and submitting for the Coalition, a submission on the draft National Mitigation Plan earlier this year. This submission is available here.
The Jesuit Curia recently joined the Flights for Forests initiative. In response to Pope Francis’ invitation to us all to acknowledge our environmental responsibility, the Jesuit Provincialate has taken the decision to commit to reflecting critically on its own use of air-travel. As part of this process, the Curia will help offset the costs of air travel by making a regular donation to the Flights for Forest project. Flights for Forest is a carbon offset scheme developed by the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific, and involves Limerick-born Jesuit, Pedro Walpole SJ. The project trains and supports young adults to actively manage and protect vulnerable indigenous forests in parts of the Philippines. Read more here.
In their Eco-Congregation journey, Gardiner St. Parish invited in their recycling company to give a presentation on how the Parish and the Jesuit community within the parish can improve their waste reduction and recycling. This was well-received, and progress on recycling has been already made. The parish are now busy planning activities for the year ahead. Keep an eye on progress here.
The JCFJ Environmental Justice Officer Catherine Devitt’s letter on the need for Ireland to significantly increase its ambition on climate policy, appeared in the Irish Times.