In the picturesque gardens of Castel Gandolfo’s Apostolic Palace, representatives from Notre Dame, the Vatican and over 60 universities from 30 countries gathered on March 9-10 to brainstorm the future of education on sustainability, celebrating the birth of the Global Alliance for Laudato si’.
The alliance emerged from over two years of partnership between Notre Dame’s Just Transformations to Sustainability Initiative, the Laudato si’ Center for Higher Education and the Holy See’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.
The Global Alliance aims to “convene a global community to advance Pope Francis’s vision of caring for our common home — bringing people together across disciplines, cultures and commitments,” Fr. Dan Groody said in a comment. Groody, Notre Dame’s vice president and associate provost for undergraduate education, was one of 15 faculty and University leadership representatives Notre Dame sent to the inauguration, due to his work with the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.
Groody said the partnership “presents a unique opportunity to bring the research needs of the Church in the world together with the research engine of Notre Dame.”
Kevin Fink, managing director of the Notre Dame Just Transformations to Sustainability Initiative, said the development formalizes the groups’ work through the Laudato si’ model, but isn’t a departure from previous efforts.
“The core mission of this alliance is to bring together work that right now is siloed and fragmented at a time when Laudato si’ can provide such a transformative framework for pursuing sustainability and teaching about sustainability,” he said.
The initiative was inspired by Pope Francis’ call for an increased focus on integral ecology, outlined in his papal encyclical Laudato si’, which means “praise be to you” and comes from a canticle by St. Francis of Assisi.
In Laudato si’, Pope Francis explains that integral ecology is not just the study of how humans relate to their environment but is “inseparable from the notion of the common good, a central and unifying principle of social ethics.”
The conference unites groups from around the world who have been inspired by the encyclical in the 10 years since its publication. During the conference, the alliance formed six working groups, each focused on researching and planning solutions surrounding a specific sustainability issue. At the end of the second day, each group presented its plans for the following year.
The Global Alliance has implemented the encyclical in a working group that is researching the nexus of water, energy and food security.
“One of the key risks ... is that the solutions that we advance are the ones that continue to put vulnerable and marginalized peoples more on the fringes, and I think especially when we think about water, energy and food security, the risk is that as we advance, the people who are most marginalized are going to be the most harmed by those solutions,” Fink said.
Integral ecology asks sustainability problem-solvers to consider justice and equality, so these were important focal points for working groups. Fink called it a framework for “making sure that we’re not keeping issues of humanity out of that equation” and making sure “that we’re looking holistically at solutions that can preserve the environment while preserving the dignity of the world’s most vulnerable.”
Working groups also covered other topics, such as developing a Laudato si’-inspired sustainability curriculum in higher education, which will eventually extend to early childhood education.
This emphasis on sustainability in higher education is evident in a new summer abroad course offering from Notre Dame. This summer, the University will offer a weeklong immersive learning course at the Laudato si’ Village, taught by Groody and professor Arun Agrawal, where students will learn to address sustainability challenges through the lens of integral ecology. The course includes both hands-on experience, classroom instruction and possible visits to various Vatican museums.
