Topic archive
Earth
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. Learn more about our mission to protect Earth.
A 2-century-old Catholic convent is fighting for conservation in Ky.
Published by Louisville Public Media on January 19, 2023 For a 2-century-old Catholic convent outside Loretto, Ky., conservation is an act of faith. In a state where prosperity was forged in coal furnaces, the Sisters of Loretto have divested from…
Sisters of Loretto permanently protect 650 acres in Marion County, Ky.
NERINX, KY – The Sisters of Loretto today, Jan. 18, signed an historic agreement with the Bluegrass Land Conservancy to conserve more than 650 acres of the congregation’s nearly 800-acre Loretto Motherhouse property in Nerinx, Ky., through a donated conservation…
New Name, Same Game: The Loretto Carbon Reduction Fund
Written by the Loretto Carbon Reduction Fund Committee: Beth Blissman, Susan Classen, Becky Coakley, Roberta Hudlow, Jessie Rathburn, Michele Stimac The Tree Fund was first established in 2019 in honor of Anthony Mary Sartorius, then renamed the Loretto Carbon Offset…
The Sisters of Loretto Share a Kinship With the Earth
An anthropologist looks to a religious community of women in rural Kentucky for scientifically informed lessons in land stewardship. Could they be a model for activists and policymakers to move beyond partisan approaches to climate change? Published by Sapiens Anthropology…
Sing Alleluia to Our God!: Loretto Natural Burial Practices
Gain souls, draw souls, court souls, shelter souls. I Am the Way, the Constitutions of the Sisters of Loretto,p. 2 What is a green, or natural, burial? A green or “natural” burial conserves natural resources, preserves the environment and honors…
Shenandoah Valley Black Heritage Project Held a Solar Picnic – 10/28/2022
The Loretto Carbon Reduction Fund is excited to highlight a recent grant recipient: the Shenandoah Valley Black Heritage Project (SVBHP). On Friday, October 28, supporters of the Shenandoah Valley Black Heritage Project held a “Solar Picnic.” Participants watched as solar…
The church forbids ‘human composting’ at death. But what about ‘green’ burials?
Published by America Magazine Oct. 13, 2022. “So is there a way for Catholics to honor the sacredness of the body in a conservation burial that also honors the sacredness of the land? The answer lies in a 200-plus-year-old community…
Loretto’s Carbon Reduction Fund Helps Support Earth’s Restoration
In “All We Can Save,” Katharine Wilkinson and Ayana Elizabeth Johnson write, “To address our climate emergency, we must rapidly, radically reshape society. We need every solution and every solver. As the saying goes, to change everything, we need everyone.…
Loretto Motherhouse Farm Ag Bash
Facilitating learning events for the surrounding community continues to be central to the Farm’s work. Over the past six years the Loretto Motherhouse Farm has hosted Farmer Field Days to share research projects, environmentally-focused farming practices and more with local…
Loretto Motherhouse Farm Works to ‘Care for our Common Home’
The Loretto Motherhouse Farm, formerly St. Stephens Farm, has been a productive farm operation since at least the late 1700’s, before the Sisters of Loretto were organized. In its earliest days the Farm provided sustenance for those who lived and…
Loretto is embracing Laudato Si’ spirituality
In “Laudato Si’” Pope Francis urges upon us nothing less than an ecological conversion. Conversion connotes a life-changing spiritual, and resulting physical, transformation. It can be something familiar, like leaving all to follow a religious vocation, or welcoming a baby…
Loretto Members Share Ways to Live Simply So Others May Simply Live
The poet David Whyte says, “The doorway to a radical, numinous simplicity, seems to be reached by the long and difficult path of generosity.” Loretto Constitutions say, “By our vow of poverty, inspired by Christ who became poor for us…