How did we spend the last 10 years of living Laudato Si’ and integral ecology? Were we trying to listen, trying to learn perhaps, but remaining indecisive for periods, with increased distraction, division, and denial? The main challenge is not a project design—or a technology—but good will in seeking collaboration across silos.
Where have we come from?
The encyclical Laudato Si’ was purposefully released before the 21st meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP21) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Paris, France in 2015, and anticipated globally with much interest.
It was a broad call for political renewal and action through the good will of all and was acknowledged with relevance during the COP21 negotiations when hope, commitment, and solidarity were at their highest. Its impact through the Church brought many to a deeper, simpler, personal encounter with others in the diversity of life and landscape and the challenge was to grow in energy, commitment, and collaboration.
The word “integral” is mentioned 22 times in the document, integral human development (including education and disarmament) 13 times, integral ecology nine times—always seeking the integrity of inclusive action for human development in caring for our home.
Querida Amazonia, a post-synodal apostolic exhortation in 2020, is a context for visioning: social, cultural, ecological, and ecclesial. The four great dreams that the Amazon region inspired had a creative sense of the arts, poetry in particular, and should never be read without committing to a difference in our own being, way of thinking, moving, and feeling.
Laudate Deum, an apostolic exhortation in 2023 and released as a follow-up to Laudato Si’ highlighted the urgency of the climate crisis and great concern for the technocracy and corruption increasingly ruling our divisive societies.
So yes, we have advanced, yet not enough for the crisis has grown. The intentions of the Sustainable Development Goals could not be pursued through government and collaborative research, and development is primarily economic and self-serving. People and institutions lost commitment to accountable implementation and so many countries in Asia are faced with massive corruption and lack of seriousness in addressing increasing poverty. On the ground, people are not prepared to seek change. There is little help and people take the election money and job orders they can get.
Comfort zones provide needed ease and distance from stress and sense of safety; everyone, even the poor, seek such zones of routine and low anxiety levels, but this can also result in limited personal growth, easy justification for consumption, and denial of challenges. On a broader scale, civil society wanes and the social challenges are left to the government to “do its job,” resulting over time in a renewed crisis without accountability. Today there is much advocacy in the face of our corrupt technocracy and is also a renewed call for collective care.
Where are we now?
We are still trying. At least we are trying.
Earth Overshoot Day in 2025 was the 24th of July, when humanity’s demand for ecological resources exceeded what the Earth could regenerate in a year. Currently, we are using nature 80% faster than Earth’s systems could regenerate, equivalent to using 1.8 Earths. This persists because we are still focused on production and accumulation of wealth and material goods, overstretching the natural systems and building global economic inequality.
For the Global South, the social and ecological situation is on a trajectory of getting worse before getting better. Youth are frustrated, distracted if not divided, and face a tougher sense of hope. The present working generation may see things improve by the end of their lifetime, while change is a lifetime investment. This generation can make a difference where action is integral. Four interconnected areas are worth reviewing: accompaniment and advocacy in the processes of governance, personal commitments and witness, collaboration across institutions, and listening to the poor.
It is a challenge to work with government departments on policy development and implementation while some work can be done with local government officials. There are many good government servants and good will, yet it is difficult to find the collaborations that work across society.
For integrity, the needed change is at home. Yet changing at home involves others requiring many experiences in self-sacrifice and silence; local advocacy is generally counter-productive. Advocates like Jörg Alt are perhaps a little more broadly appreciated by confrères today. While we have many centers that now cultivate the thought processes and spiritual activeness called for, yet beyond ticking the box of having been there and done that, what and with whom am I now going to walk with? Where is the greater collaboration to be forged? We often want to define the collaboration before listening with local communities. Collaboration requires much more simple trust in the experiences of communion and participation.
Integral ecology is a way of life, not a profession or organizational attachment. It is full of details, compassion, forgiveness, and faith that is the realization now of our hopes so we can work fervently and avoid debates.
Respect for creation is not just about environmental holidays and outings, but a deep prayer of gratitude and massively reduced consumption. We need the youth as boy scouts and girl scouts in all our educational institutions as a commitment to simplicity. Those working in Jesuit environments have the Universal Apostolic Preferences (UAPs) that are interwoven as they seek connectivity across apostolates. The UAPs give the biggest opportunity to see things anew, for change is not attainable top-down and we need to be working on the ground.
While we deal with the biggest complexities and conflicts of science, economics, politics, and biomes, apostolates are personal, daily touching the lives of the youth in particular. So we need to communicate a compassion that accompanies the call of the poor and the cry of the earth. For an education to serve the greater good, it can no longer be a trickle-down approach. In these economically aggressive times, we need to spend more time and reflection with the poor and with Creation.
COP30 in Belém, Brazil is a pilgrimage of hope, not just a negotiation, and the Amazonian biome allows a spotlight on indigenous territories. It is a chance to bring Asia-Oceania’s vulnerable islands and Indigenous Peoples into the global conversation, carrying devastating stories of sea level rise, stronger typhoons, lost livelihoods, resilience, and hope. While Brazil has contradictions in its economic development and forest destruction, the presidency wants COP30 to be known as the ‘Implementation COP.’ We want it to also be remembered as the ‘Indigenous COP.’ Indigenous youth are bridges—they inherit ancestral wisdom and they carry the future, sharing struggles and hope.
History teaches us many lessons and some we have to learn. But the passion, death, and resurrection teach us with truth and joy that we are called to remain faithful and go through the suffering of our times, seeking communion and stripped of self-importance, finding ways to collaborate in hope.
FABC’s 50th anniversary document gives the local church a beautiful pastoral vision of inclusion and care where all the baptized are part of the mission of Jesus. The challenge of the Final Document of the Synod backs up the call for change with significant basic Pathways of Engagement. Dilexi Te shares the same integral love and care of life, the poor, all sentient beings, and Creation. We are being called anew to be with the poor in this time of greatest uncertainty and vulnerability.
Where do we want to go?
Whether we want to or not, we are set in the next several decades for climatic turmoil where the poor will suffer the brunt of climate extremes, food insecurity, displacement, and growing economic disparity with severe consequences. Scientifically, with the cautious evaluation of data and systems, the findings are not final whether there is an irreversible new set of norms established, but to wait for that to be defined is a death wish. There is no carbon zap technology that will remove all the atmospheric carbon dioxide that is changing the climate and the natural systems must find an integral balance. We can choose only as an integral society, and as collective societies globally, to be part of that active decision. There is a lot of collaboration to be either sought through good will or enforced by circumstance.
This mission is in God’s hands, but if we simply pray and leave it to God and fail to accompany in the mission, then we are left with arrogance, depression, power, and collapse.
The question is, where are we going to find the Church in these vast margins, and will we recognize the face of Christ amongst the poor? How do we relate the mission of the Good News to proclaim God’s Kingdom, the new heavens and the new earth in our time, place, and commitment? Spiritually, we must learn to find peace so that this peace in stressful times is our comfort and we do not withdraw to our own realm and denial.
The world is so mysterious, so beautiful, so terrifying, and the human so creative, so loving, and so destructive. It is the youth who have such integrity, purpose, and hope. This world is life for us now in all its suffering and we need to make it a better place for all.
The opening words Laudato si’, mi’ Signore clearly place us in prayer as willing servants at this time in the merciful hands of the Lord and who are called to be in communion, participation, and mission.
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Pedro Walpole, SJ continues to live with the Pulangiyēn community while being part of the Bukidnon Mission District. His activities still take him to different parts of Asia and Oceania, listening to the faith experiences of indigenous youth and communities. The synodal journey he sees as critical in ecclesial networking with the people and sharing the cry of the land and cry of the poor.