by Dr. Joselito C. Gutierrez, Executive Assistant to the SLU President
Saint Louis University (SLU) hosted the Baguio Launch of the annual Season of Creation 2023 ecumenical celebration marked by the Ecumenical Prayer Service held at Bishop Carlito Cenzon D.D. Sports Center, SLU on 02 September 2023. Baguio City Congressman Mark Go and Mayor Benjamin Magalong were among those present at the gathering.
With the theme, “Let Justice and Peace Flow,” the Season of Creation 2023 began on 01 September, the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, and will run until 04 October 2023, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi.
According to the Laudato Si’ Movement, the theme serves as a call to “join the river of justice and peace, to take up climate and ecological justice, and to speak out with and for communities most impacted by climate injustice and the loss of biodiversity.”
As the Louisian community has taken part in this endeavor, SLU President Rev. Fr. Gilbert B. Sales, who is now in Mongolia to celebrate an equally important momentous event in the missionary life of the Congregatio Immaculati Cordis Mariae (CICM) congregation, has conveyed his sincerest congratulatory message to those whose efforts are geared toward the protection and preservation of Common Home.
For two crucial rationale, SLU, as a Catholic Institution, participated in this event as it lives up to its mandate as an Ecclesial Institution: to serve as an ally of the universal church and to promote the CICM Advocacies of Justice, Peace, Integrity of Creation, and Indigenous Peoples Apostolate.
Rev. Fr. Sales and the CICM Congregation are steadfast in these advocacies. It is, therefore, timely that the Season of Creation 2023 celebration is in line with the congregation’s advocacy on the CICM advocacy of Integrity of Creation.
SLU Laudato Si Action Plan: A Commitment to the CICM Advocacies
SLU’s Environmental Programs and Advocacies were submitted and acknowledged by the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development through the university’s Laudato Si Action Plan, aligned with the 7 Laudato Si Goals. This is a collaborative effort of the SLU community spearheaded by the University President.
These programs include buildings and establishments, like the newly renovated SLU Sacred Heart Medical Center, powered by solar energy; the Sewage Treatment Plant that recycles used water; and the Rain Water Catch system, which is stable and at work. Another significant move is the memorandum issued by SLU in 2016 on the “No Plastic Policy” in the campus, which results in bringing personal drinking flasks for drinking water.
Further, SLU, through the programs of Community Extension and Outreach Programs (CEOPO) and the National Service Training Program (NSTP), tree-planting and clean-up drives are conducted, as well as livelihood projects that support the local indigenous groups in the region.
Moreover, the launching and establishing of the Binnadang Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Center played a significant role in promoting sustainability in the university. One notable initiative under the SDG Center includes “Talon iti Namnama: Farm of Hope,” a project that aims to have a sustainable production of vegetables and fish for food consumption and eventual resource generation of the Halfway Home for Boys through hydroponics and aquaponics. In addition, a citizen nominated SLU for the Mobility Awards for the use of bicycles in lessening carbon emissions, a project related to Climate Action.
All these are results of SLU’s actions that inspire its stakeholders, most especially the students, to protect and care for our Common Home continuously and to advance and support the advocacy of Pope Francis’s Laudato Si.
Through these programs and initiatives spearheaded by Rev. Fr. Sales, the CICM Congregation and the Louisian community firmly adhere and commit to rallying, supporting, and promoting the Integrity of Creation – the Season of Creation – all throughout the year and beyond.
This is the SLU commitment– to let justice and peace flow, to further the care of our common home.
