Young people demand change. They wonder how anyone can claim to be building a better future without thinking of the environmental crisis and the sufferings of the excluded. I urgently appeal, then, for a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet.
Pope Francis, Laudato Si’, 13-14
In the wee hours of a June morning in 2015, I awoke at 4 o’clock to begin furiously reading Laudato Si’. As a father with young children, giving up sleep is not a choice I made lightly — I was making a commitment! As I began to sift through the text, I could not help but think about how my three boys, ages three, three, and six at the time, would experience the legacy of this document. How would this collection of words influence a new generation to “care for our common home”? After just a few paragraphs, it was obvious to me that Pope Francis was thinking about this, too.
Good education plants seeds when we are young, and these continue to bear fruit throughout life.
Laudato Si’, 213
In our work at the Ignatian Solidarity Network, we are constantly reflecting on how we can invite a new generation of Catholics to respond to the realities of injustice as contemplative people of action. Laudato Si’ has provided us with a framework to do just this.
Pope Francis frames his invitation in section II of the document to educate “for the covenant between humanity and the environment” by noting that young people “have a new ecological sensitivity and a generous spirit” (209). However, he also cautions that the presence of “extreme consumerism and affluence” create an “educational challenge” (ibid.).
In late 2015, two faculty members from Cheverus High School, a Jesuit coeducational college preparatory school in Portland, Maine, approached our staff with an idea to develop a program to challenge high school students and their institutions to more deeply reflect on the themes of Laudato Si’. As they began to share their ideas for the themes and structure of the program, I was in awe of the ways that the pope’s document was taking hold of these educators and leading them to respond to this “educational challenge” in ways that could impact young people and their schools for generations to come.
Grounded in various themes of Laudato Si’, the resulting Ignatian Carbon Challenge responds to our current ecological context, the needs of the global community, and Pope Francis’s call to practice responsible stewardship for creation by demonstrating care for it. The program invites both individuals and institutions to address climate change and environmental justice through a series of monthly challenges arranged in eight categories that coincide with themes of Laudato Si’: consumerism, transport, person-to-person interaction, relationship with the earth, energy, food, intellectual understanding, and prayer.
To date, nearly 4,000 students and upwards of 35 Catholic high schools across the United States and Canada are participating. Program leaders are collecting, analyzing, and sharing the results of participants’ ability to meet the challenges so that others can learn from their commitment. Will these young men and women change the world with their actions alone? Likely not. However the Ignatian Carbon Challenge is responding to the invitation to “plant seeds” and engage young people in a “new dialogue” of care for our common home and one another.
Integral Voices 
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