CARING FOR OUR COMMON HOME
By Fr Pedro Walpole SJ
Former coordinator of Ecojesuit, the Global Ignatian Advocacy Network (GIAN) for Ecology
Ecological conversion is a shared path. To quote from the RAOEN statement, developed from the COP30 Learning Series, “Ecological conversion is metanoia – a deep change of heart, mind and relationship. It calls us to live simply, walk humbly with creation, and act boldly for justice. Guided by both science and spirituality, we commit to care for all that is sacred: the forests that breathe, the waters that flow, and the seas that connect our islands and continents.”
Recently, I was asked by the General Secretariat on Synodality to offer some small workshops for the pilgrims visiting St Peter’s Basilica, and to focus on a synodal Church that listens intently to two aspects: the cry of the poor and the cry of the earth.
Listening to communities as they express their challenges and hopes at the local level reflects great resilience and integrity. The past months were very engaging regionally with the preparations for the Jubilee Pilgrimage and for local and regional participation in COP30 (held in Belem, Brazil last November) and the exchanges, while global in representation, were often deeply personal as a spiritual experience.
In 2025, more than 30 million pilgrims passed through the Jubilee Door of St Peter’s Basilica. Certainly there was a deep sense at St Peter’s of the joyous crowds that made the basilica into a living experience that is even more glorious than the physical construction. Right around the altar, left and right, were families and pilgrims from everywhere who had made the journey. Being at the base of the altar as one of the consecrating priests accompanying Pope Leo was for me a humbling spiritual experience.
I was astonished to meet such committed pilgrims from the Global North who are so inspired about participating in the journey of change and who humbly know what they are about. The sense of pilgrimage is profoundly embedded now in so many living communities around the world.
Much time was spent sharing on socio-economic-political-imposed suffering and while not all had the felt experience of the cry of the land and how the two cries were one, there was acknowledgement and openness to listen and grow together.
Many workshop participants felt discouraged, sensing that past progress towards social and ecological justice and awareness has now been lost or reversed. Yet they emphasised the synodal process allowing the Church to face these difficult realities with solidarity, dialogue and shared responsibility. They expressed the desire to raise future generations and build communities that value unity and collective care for one another and for creation.
They recognised that responding to these dual cries requires conversion of hearts, of lifestyles, and of Church structures towards a more synodal way of listening, sharing, and acting together. They realised too that hope lies in the Church’s capacity to accompany suffering communities, promote ecological justice, and embody the love of Christ through real acts of solidarity.
Insights were shared on greater generational hope and the desire to create with future generations the understanding of building communities that value unity and collective care for one another and for creation. Local struggles and action for global transformation focused on how environmental degradation always hits marginalised people the hardest. There were calls for stronger networking among faith communities and interreligious groups to care for creation. Examples included interfaith cooperation in Thailand and Church efforts in Germany to promote eco-friendly economies. The conclusion was that listening to one another’s local struggles helps create a collective voice for global transformation.
Underscoring meaningful change doesn’t always require massive movements. Local parishes and ordinary believers can lead by example in caring for the earth and supporting one another.
Most questions revolved around the broader framework of how humanity is going to live together, as well as how to combat the exclusion of women. There were no questions about how synodality works or doubts about being involved.
Responses abounded with simple, caring expression:
- One participant from the Broome Diocese in Australia spoke of the openness with people in communities and the extensive pastoral engagement reaching Aboriginal communities and life on the land.
- In the?West Tennessee Diocese in the US, there are many ecological challenges alongside growing poverty. They allowed the use of the parish car park for people who live in their cars and also formed a new commission on care for creation.
- Another pilgrim spoke of a visit to the Philippines as a transformative experience. With this, I sense that a program with a formative process will grow in the light of synodality.
- A participant from the Salzburg Archdiocese in Austria shared the experience of talking with transnational truck drivers, thanking them for their service, and basically expressing gratitude and forming an experience of welcome and inclusion. It is not clear if this engagement developed deep roots, but the experience was moving.
My input during the workshops focused on the lived experience of an integral ecology that calls for journeying closely with those suffering. This allows the discovery of the mutual hope and community that allows the poor, particularly indigenous peoples, to share their pain and life – the life of all sentient beings, land and seas, so all those on the margins can participate in the pastoral life of the Church and the mission of Jesus.
“Listening to the cry of the poor and of the earth” became a key study area for the Synod because the Church’s preferential option for the poor is considered a fundamental theological imperative, a core value of identity and mission of the Church and not an optional concern.
The need is amplified by new forms of poverty arising from wars, terrorism, corrupt and exploitative political systems, and also includes victims of exploitation, violence and vulnerability alongside ecological destruction, including climate change and biodiversity loss.
The lives of millions on the margins, the majority of humanity, suffer alienation, hunger, war and exploitation. This demands a Church that is more attentive and actively present, not just to the marginalised but also to the planet’s suffering.
Jesus said, “You will always have the poor with you” (Mt. 26:11). In the Gospel context, Jesus showed great empathy as he moved towards his passion and death, and in this he shows us that he too is the poor. This is why we find the face of Jesus in the poor.
We are called in synodality to fill any gap between the Church and the poor with love and communion, and accompany where possible but knowing it is Jesus who saves, not our actions.
“Synodality and integral ecology both take on the character of relationality and insist upon us nurturing what binds us together; this is why they correspond to and complement each other concerning how the mission of the Church is lived out in today’s world.” (From the Final Document, Synod of Bishops 16th Ordinary General Assembly. 2023. Synthesis Report, Section 48n)
Exploring this relationship of ecology and synodality is vital, for we are constantly interconnected with a living and suffering creation that lives in us – from the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat, through people and the resources used. We are creation – a suffering creation that needs healing and hope through the way we live.
The importance of this entire listening process and the ensuing journey is that each person is changed from within by the experience and enriches their respective communities through hope and commitment. As a church, listening means sharing in their pastoral needs and services, not as outsiders but as companions on the journey of faith.
Read more about Fr Pedro Walpole and his commitment to including environmental work within the scope of his vocation: Going further than ecology. He is also Director for Research at the Environmental Science for Social Change (ESSC) Ateneo de Manila University Campus, Quezon City in the Philippines.
Banner image concept by David McMahon, using Canva’s Magic Media app.