The 225-acre Catholic Ecology Center near Milwaukee helps adults and children deepen their faith and foster a stewardship ethic through hands-on encounters with nature. Here, kids cross the boardwalk as part of a class ecology program.
A Decade of Focusing on the Earth
Pope Francis’ encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si’, is 10 years old, and Midwestern universities and other works have taken the message to heart
By Garan Santicola
Garan Santicola is a writer who lives in the Catskill Mountains of Upstate New York. He writes regularly for The Christophers and for the past three years has crafted the award-winning Beauty & Truth column for Catholic New York newspaper. He is currently working on his first novel.
It has been 10 years since Pope Francis released his encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si’, and in that time, ecology and sustainability programs at the six Jesuit universities of the Midwest Province, as well as other apostolates and partners, have taken the message to heart.
“A big part of the call to sustainability is similar to the call of the Spiritual Exercises, to return to who God made us to be— creatures!” says Br. Mark Mackey, SJ, pointing out the connection between core principles of Laudato Si’ and the First Principle and Foundation of Ignatian Spirituality. “As creatures, we are dependent on others, on this planet and ultimately on our Creator.”
Brother Mark Mackey, SJ (right, holding a bullfrog) with Jesuit scholastics during their inaugural summer first studies Integral Ecology graduate course at the Loyola University Chicago Retreat & Ecology Campus.
An ecologist, Br. Mackey teaches Integral Ecology, Field Herpetology and Ecospirituality for Action in the School of Environmental Sustainability at Loyola University Chicago (LUC), which The Princeton Review ranked 12th on its 2025 list of Top 50 Green Colleges. Young people have definitely thought more about the environment in recent years, and at times Br. Mackey could see it taking a toll. That is why in 2023 he founded the Eco-Warriors Club to address their increasing levels of climate anxiety. The club emphasizes proactive approaches that reflect the School’s commitment to hands-on learning, an ethos that led to LUC’s carbon-neutrality designation, a first among Chicago-area universities.
Liam Donnelly, a recent graduate of the School of Environmental Sustainability, exemplifies the proactive approach. A native Chicagoan, he started a composting business at age 15 and kept it going as a student at LUC. He spent nights biking around the neighborhood to collect and haul away compost from homes and businesses. Today, his WasteNot Compost company is Chicago’s leading compost collection provider. Although Donnelly no longer uses a bicycle-drawn cart, WasteNot Compost has a fleet of all-electric vehicles and remains the only zero-emissions compost collection service in the country.
In response to Laudato Si’, all six Midwest Jesuit universities have seen growth in environmentally focused student clubs, campus efforts and academic offerings. John Carroll University (JCU) now offers an environmental science major. The program is unique for its small size, creating a close-knit community focused on hands-on learning and field research, with classes that trek to nearby lakes and wetlands. Professors also get to know students well enough to connect them to job and research opportunities around the world as they prepare for graduation.
“WE UTILIZE THE AMAZING BEAUTY OF OUR PROPERTY AS A CONDUIT TO DRAW PEOPLE CLOSER TO CHRIST, PROVIDING QUIET PLACES TO HEAR GOD’S VOICE IN PRAYER AND INSTILLING A SENSE OF CHILDLIKE WONDER THROUGH ECOLOGY PROGRAMMING.”
Xavier University (XU) has a Sustainability and the Mission seminar that is the first and only environmentally focused professional development opportunity among Jesuit universities to qualify participants for Province Ignatian Educators of Distinction. Open to faculty and staff, the program provides understanding of sustainability initiatives around campus, including the school’s green landscape, which serves as everything from inspiration for eco-spirituality to gardening initiatives that promote food security in the surrounding community.
The School of Architecture & Community Development at the University of Detroit Mercy (UDM) is internationally recognized for its approach to environmental justice, particularly in the local community through its Master of Community Development program and the Detroit Collaborative Design Center, which focuses on urban revitalization and sustainability.
In 2022, Creighton University (CU) President Fr. Daniel S. Hendrickson, SJ, instituted the Sustainable Creighton Initiative, which has already collected and processed nearly 10 tons of food waste, diverted thousands of plastic containers from landfills, and created a fund for student-led sustainability projects. Today, one in seven courses taught at CU discusses issues pertaining to sustainable development. Following Pope Francis’ call for a seven-year journey toward integral ecology, the Laudato Si’ Task Force at Marquette University (MU) has identified five priorities: include integral ecology across curriculum and research; reduce the school’s ecological footprint; practice socially responsible purchasing and investment; respond to the ecological crisis through community engagement and public advocacy; and foster a deep sense of responsibility to care for our common home through action and spirituality.
Brother Mark Mackey, SJ (far left) with Loyola University Chicago’s weekly Eco-Warriors ecology anxiety support group.
That final priority echoes yet another guiding principle of all Jesuit works, the fourth Jesuit Universal Apostolic Preference: Caring for Our Common Home.
Elsewhere in Milwaukee, Marquette University High School (MUHS) science teacher Joseph Meyer’s Laudato Si’ Project led to the purchase of a 225-acre tract of rural land outside the city. There, Meyer founded the Catholic Ecology Center, a bucolic environment dedicated to deepening faith and fostering a stewardship ethic through hands-on encounters with nature. “We utilize the amazing beauty of our property as a conduit to draw people closer to Christ, providing quiet places to hear God’s voice in prayer and instilling a sense of childlike wonder through ecology programming,” Meyer says.
“A BIG PART OF THE CALL TO SUSTAINABILITY IS SIMILAR TO THE CALL OF THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES, TO RETURN TO WHO GOD MADE US TO BE— CREATURES!”
At Mahvpíya Lúta|Red Cloud school on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, the food sovereignty initiative began with a geodesic greenhouse built to educate students about gardening. Today, traditional Lakota food is grown and used to prepare meals in the school’s cafeteria, and the program has evolved to include multiple greenhouses and gardens and a chicken coop.
Chicago’s Christ the King Jesuit College Preparatory School (CtK) and the adjoining Chicago Jesuit Academy (CJA) have completed a major solar panel installation that will benefit the environment while also lowering energy costs. Partnering with longtime supporters John and Sue Dewan, the schools stand to save up to $1 million over the next 20 years. Rooftop solar panels are also planned for the Midwest Province offices.
Brother Mackey has found it rewarding to help LUC students understand humanity’s relationship with God—and how it relates to caring for God’s creation. “Often, nature is treated like the background prop of a play rather than being integral to the story,” Br. Mackey says. “Connecting students back to this great story, and also clearly connecting the work of Christ and his Church back to this timeline, can add a deep sense of vocation and purpose.”
Ten years after reading the words of Laudato Si’, Br. Mackey knows how much they have guided his work. “For me, a person whose faith and relationship with God was always so intertwined with, and grown from, my love and interaction with nature, Laudato Si’ was able to put into words things I had recognized but not been able to articulate.”
