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By Fr. Jean Bertin ST LOUIS, SJ, Director of the Manresa Spirituality Centre, Haiti
The wounds inflicted on creation often result from our own inner wounds (cf. LS 70, 118, 217, and 222).
To speak of integral ecology in Haiti is to enter into a reality of great fragility: accelerated environmental degradation, chronic insecurity, economic precariousness, and profound psychosocial vulnerability. In such a context, the ecological question cannot be separated from human suffering or from the search for meaning and hope. It is precisely within this challenging reality that integral ecology, inspired by Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’ and nourished by the Ignatian tradition, reveals its full spiritual depth and apostolic vitality. At the Manresa Spirituality Centre in Tabarre, in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area, we strive to live this out concretely in our life and mission.
Incarnated Spirituality at Manresa Spirituality Centre
At the Pierre Favre Jesuit Residence, home to the Manresa Spirituality Centre, integral ecology is neither a technical program nor a slogan: It is rooted in spiritual experience. It is about learning to seek and find God in all things — in the wounded earth, in relationships frayed by violence, or in life choices characterized by simplicity. The Spiritual Exercises offer a crucial insight: a contemplative gaze that recognizes creation as a gift, a responsibility, and a privileged place of discernment.
This experience is reflected in the mission of the Province’s ecology sector, which connects spirituality, formation, and concrete practices of caring for our Common Home. In the Haitian context, this often takes the form of modest but meaningful initiatives: retreats and spiritual accompaniment, simple ecological actions (reducing plastic use, sorting waste, caring for water and green spaces), and integrating nature into prayer and meditation.
Challenges, Faithfulness, and Hope
Working from this perspective in Haiti involves dealing with fatigue, fear, unpredictability, and a constant sense of urgency. Integral ecology encompasses not only nature, but also human relationships, physical and mental health, and the capacity to persevere over time. The wounds inflicted on creation often stem from our own inner wounds.
Caring for our Common Home requires a conversion of our perspective and our desires: learning to contemplate creation differently and to collaborate humbly with it through simple, concrete actions. This mission is marked by moments of consolation — seeing retreatants rediscover joy, peace, and inner freedom — and moments of desolation in the face of concrete limitations: lack of resources, social instability, and the slow pace of transformation. In this context, Ignatian discernment remains our guide: seeking and choosing what best helps us to love and serve life, here and now, without giving in to discouragement or fruitless activism.
This approach is also in line with the call of the Universal Apostolic Preferences of the Society of Jesus, particularly the call to collaborate in caring for our Common Home. Solidarity among Jesuit works, within the Province of Canada and with local partners, remains essential to supporting this mission, particularly following the earthquakes in 2010 and 2021 that weakened the physical structures of the Pierre Favre Residence, home to the Manresa Spirituality Centre.
The experience at Manresa undescores a simple yet demanding truth: Integral ecology is credible only if it is lived out in practice, with patience, and grounded in reality. It is often experienced in small ways, in fragile contexts, as humble companionship with wounded people and places. It is through these simple acts — the centre’s activities, formation programs, care for the garden, and attention to human relationships — that integral ecology bears fruit and opens paths of hope.
In a country marked by so many challenges, this way of living integral ecology is seen less as a strategy and more as a spirituality of faithfulness and hope, reminding us that caring for creation, for people, and for community life is all part of the same mission: to seek and find God at work in our world, even in the midst of its fragility.
How to Support This Mission
The Manresa Spirituality Centre continues to offer a space for silence, discernment, and spiritual formation. In order to continue this mission and ensure the safety of those we welcome, it is becoming increasingly necessary to strengthen and improve the infrastructure.
Solidarity among Jesuit works, partners, and friends of the mission remains invaluable. Any form of collaboration — prayer, accompaniment, expertise, or any other form of material support — helps to ensure that this place of spiritual renewal remains a vital resource for the Church and Haitian society.
Individuals or institutions that wish to learn more about this mission or explore opportunities for collaboration may contact the Province or the Manresa Spirituality Centre.
