Our commitment to care for Earth

Loretto’s longstanding, living commitment to care for and heal Earth includes the following efforts, among numerous others.

Loretto Earth Network

The Loretto Earth Network (LEN) was officially born in 1992 as Loretto members and friends gathered in the Colorado mountains to affirm their dedication to care for Earth.

In these earliest days, Eldon Shields CoL, Marcella Shields CoL, Kathleen Tighe SL and Nancy Wittwer SL came together to act for Earth. Nancy had deeply dedicated herself to working on behalf of Earth a couple of years before this, and Maureen McCormack SL, Loretto president at the time, created a staff position with an Earth focus that Nancy filled starting in 1991. LEN was a natural outgrowth of the personal commitment of individual Loretto members and the Community’s growing ecological concern.

LEN’s commitment continues. Last summer, LEN funded the purchase of environmental education curriculum supplies for the New Pioneers for a Sustainable Future summer camp held at Loretto Motherhouse. As Nancy once stated, “Who knows what younger learners may follow in the footsteps of our founders, and what they can do to further the flourishing of Mother Earth.”

LEN’s current commitment includes extending educational opportunities to Community members. “How Trees and Forests Shape Our Climate,” a course made available by Biodiversity for a Livable Climate, was a recent offering.

Julie Kerber CoL, LEN coordinator along with Beth Blissman CoL and Marcella, says that LEN is always looking for ways to connect with Earth and with one another in love and care for Earth. After all, disconnect is at the root of so much that has gone wrong. As Pope Francis wrote in Laudato Si’, “Our care for one another and our care for the earth are intimately bound together.”

If you’d like to support and follow Loretto’s commitment to Earth, you are welcome to join us. Let us know if you’d like to be added to our email list. One of our longtime offerings is an online solstice and equinox ritual that is open to all. The rituals are now recorded. Contact LEN by filling out their contact form.

Carbon Reduction Fund

The Carbon Reduction Fund offers grants for Loretto- and Loretto-related projects that prevent greenhouse gas emissions (e.g. installing solar panels); sequester greenhouse gas emissions (e.g. regenerating soils and landscapes, planting trees); secure equipment for plantings (e.g. funding irrigation); and provide education on carbon emissions and greenhouse gas reduction/prevention.

Laudato Si’ Action Platform

In 2021, Loretto committed to the Platform, based on Pope Francis’s encyclical, Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home. You can read about Loretto’s commitment in their public declaration to join the Platform. Liz Deines SL creates a useful and engaging monthly Laudato Si’ calendar.

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The commitment at Loretto Motherhouse

Loretto has lovingly stewarded the land at the Motherhouse in the rolling hills of Marion County, Ky., for 210 years. Nearly 800 acres are cared for by the Community. The Motherhouse composts, recycles and is conducting an energy audit. Earth-wise installations include an electric vehicle charger as well as solar panels at the renovated barn now being used to host events. On this page we share just a few of Loretto Motherhouse’s Earth-centric endeavors.

Although trite, the logic remains true: We love what we know and protect what we love. So, let’s know our place. Maybe in this way we can reorient ourselves to protection, preservation and healing for Earth.

Jessie Rathburn CoL

Land Conservancy

“Our commitment to peace and justice not only extends to Earth but is rooted in our understanding that we are of Earth. It is our responsibility to protect our sacred Motherhouse lands.” So said Barbara Nicholas SL, Loretto president in 2023 when more than 650 acres of woods, native grasses, pollinator habitat and farmland at the Motherhouse were permanently preserved in a conservancy.

Loretto Woods Cemetery

The 13-acre Loretto Woods Natural Cemetery offers natural burials free from chemical embalming or cement vaults. Burial is now open to those who are not Loretto members.

Loretto Motherhouse Farm

The farm’s oversight includes acreages of grain crops, cattle pasture, native plantings for pollinators and wildlife, woodlands and lakes, ponds, streams and creeks. The farm intensively rotates cattle, restores native habitat, uses no-till practices and plants cover crops. Regenerating the soil is key. Importantly, the impact of the farm extends to thousands of additional acres on central Kentucky farms through educational events. Read more about the farm in the summer 2025 Loretto Magazine and the summer 2020 Loretto Magazine.

Native Tree and Plant Fund

Starting in 1980, Anthony Mary Sartorius SL began planting trees at Loretto Motherhouse, a service she continued for decades, often with the help of student volunteers. The Tree Fund grew out of these efforts. The Fund broadened in recent years to include further plantings. Susan Classen CoL, Loretto’s ecosystem manager, shares, “We’ve learned more about the role, not only of trees, but also of other native plants in mitigating the effects of climate change.”

As Friends of Mary at the Foot of the Cross, we are called to care for Earth in its pain, to celebrate its beauty and to create space for its healing. Recognizing our role as one of interdependent partnership with all Creation has been part of Loretto’s mission throughout our history. We reaffirmed our commitment to resist systems and conditions that violate Earth and all species in 2018, calling ourselves to “significantly mitigate our impact on climate change and ecological degradation.” We invite any who are interested to join with us on this journey of ecological conversion.

Read all of the articles in the summer 2026 issue of Loretto Magazine.