The Office of Religious Congregations for Integral Ecology

Activities

Integral ecology formation & leadership: ORCIE at ATRI 2026

Filed Under: Activities

ORCIE was honoured to contribute to the 39th Annual Conference of the Association of Treasurers of Religious Institutes (ATRI), held in Ottawa from September 22- 24, 2026. Through two dedicated workshops, ORCIE offered formation rooted in Gospel values, Catholic social teaching, and the emerging spiritual and ethical commitments of integral ecology.

These sessions supported religious treasurers, administrators, and leadership teams as they navigate mission, stewardship, and ecological responsibility in a time of profound transition for religious life.

Integral Ecology Workshop

Wednesday, September 23, 2026 | Morning Session Presented by Sue Wilson, csj & Joe Gunn

ORCIE’s first contribution to ATRI 2026 was a full workshop introducing participants to integral ecology as both a way of living and a lens for discernment. Drawing on ORCIE’s collaborative work with more than two dozen Catholic congregations, Sue Wilson and Joe Gunn explored:

  • The theological grounding of integral ecology, including the call in Laudato Si’ to hear “both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.”
  • The interconnected nature of ecological, social, economic, political, cultural, and spiritual realities.
  • How climate change intersects with issues such as Indigenous rights, biodiversity loss, food insecurity, migration, and health.
  • ORCIE’s ongoing development of its Legacy Office, rooted in charism, mission, and long-term ecological commitment.

Participants were invited to reflect on ecological conversion, systemic change, and the spiritual foundations of ecological justice within their own congregational contexts.

View the Integral Ecology Presentation Slides:

Integral Ecology (ORCIE) 2026Download

Lay & Religious Partnerships Workshop

Wednesday, September 23, 2026 | Afternoon Session Presented by Genevieve Gallant (ORCIE), Darlene O’Leary (Martha Ministries – Sisters of St. Martha, Antigonish) and Kelly Di Domenico (Roncalli International Foundation)

ORCIE’s second workshop focused on the evolving and essential partnership between lay collaborators and religious congregations. Executive Director Genevieve Gallant offered formation on:

  • How shared charism and mission shape fruitful collaboration.
  • The growing role of lay staff in advancing justice, peace, and integral ecology.
  • Formation practices that sustain Gospel-rooted leadership.
  • Practical strategies for collaboration in administration, finances, and ecological advocacy.

Members of religious congregations joined the session to share firsthand experiences of how lay collaborators are becoming key carriers of mission, especially in ministries connected to ecological justice and systemic transformation.

ORCIE remains committed to accompanying religious congregations across Canada as we work together for a more just, sustainable, and inclusive world.

Enough Is Enough: A Book Review Exploring Degrowth, Liberation Theology, and New Economies for Our Common Home

Filed Under: Activities, It's New

Enough is Enough asks the reader to embrace the concept of “degrowth.” The novel frame used by the authors suggests that liberation theologies can add new and articulate insights into the degrowth movement’s intellectual and motivational arsenal. Additionally, the authors argue that degrowth convictions can give Christian traditions new energy for their efforts to care for creation.

The degrowth movement unequivocally argues that if everyone on earth consumed at the same rate of the average US consumer, we would need five earths to sustain it (page 4.) In the latter half of 2024, global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 3.3% – so if this rate were able to be continued, compounding 3% growth would double GDP every 24 years! (p. 57.) This “overshoot” of planetary resources is clearly unsustainable. Indeed, “enough is enough” – or at least we could agree it should be!

What is “degrowth”?

The idea of “degrowth” is not new. Some will remember debates begun by Herman E. Daly’s 1996 book, “Beyond Growth: The Economics of Sustainable Development” and how Lawrence Summers (US Treasury Secretary and then economic advisor to President Obama) trashed Daly’s writing as “not the right way to look at it.” Beyond academic circles, some in the Canadian ecumenical justice movements also engaged. Bill Ryan SJ wrote a glowing book review of Daly’s work in 1997, and in 2014 the Jesuit Forum co-published (with the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops) a work book extolling the virtues of degrowth. (See: W. Ryan SJ, Janet Somerville, Anne O’Brien gsic and Anne-Marie Jackson’s “Living with limits, living well: hints for neighbours on an endangered planet.”)

What becomes debatable is found in the various proposals for ensuing action towards the necessary transition towards true environmental and social sustainability. If there is no growth without environmental cost (p.60), is it growth itself that then becomes the enemy we must disarm? After all, it is often said that growth for its own sake is the logic of the cancer cell! (p.36)

Yet, degrowth “is an awkward term” (p.77.), and the authors readily acknowledge that there is no single definition of the concept (p. 36) In Enough Is Enough, degrowth is described as “an emerging term” (p.3.) But among many aspects discussed, the articulation of Brazilian eco-liberation theologian Leonardo Boff, from an interview with the authors, seems to best describe their preference: “degrowth is about societies that have already created good living conditions for their populations. Poor societies need to grow in order to have the health, education and living conditions they need.” (p.90.) This global justice perspective is best seen as an effort to decolonize the Global North, while in the Global South (again according to Boff) the “idea of growth for us is not aimed at accumulation but at meeting the needs of the entire population in a sufficient and decent way.” (p.91.) Detloff and Bernico unabashedly propose “degrowth socialism” which, “Put most simply, is a discussion about how to make our economies work for us and for the environment rather than for the sake of growth, which means intentionally and thoughtfully decreasing production and consumption in the Global North, a task that would in fact enrich, rather than impoverish, our lives” (pp. 81 – 83.)

Degrowth and Liberation Theologies

The major contribution of Enough Is Enough lies in its helpful references to the many insights liberation theology can bring to the degrowth argument – especially its unwavering critique of capitalism as a system that intrinsically demands growth. Chapter 1, for example, is entitled “The Idolatry of the Gross Domestic Product.” Liberation theologians all decry how capitalist ideology has taken on seemingly divine qualities, making us believe we must inevitably put economic growth before godly values. The authors helpfully describe this critique of capitalist ideology by writing, “Idolatry draws us into patterns of devotion, fear, worship and rituals, producing effects that are analogously similar to how people comport themselves towards God.” (p.24.) If this is the case, writes Costa Rican theologian Victorio Araya, then, “in order to believe in God we must first disbelieve in the gods we have contrived.” (p.29.) (And remember British Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher preached “TINA: there is no alternative!”)

No wonder the authors are convinced that growth is not a neutral or natural state – they argue convincingly for a “breaking with, not an updating” of capitalism. (p. 9.) And their critique carries forward into critical failures of “green growth” strategies that refuse to break with capitalism’s unrelenting drive for GDP expansion: “we will need to break with capitalism, not because that is the most radical thing to do, but because capitalism can’t sustain itself without a constant compulsion to grow.” (p.34.)

Catholic Social Thought, Integral Ecology and Degrowth

ORCIE’s membership is keen to further our understanding and acceptance of integral ecology. With regard to papal teaching, Pope Francis did indeed criticize how “talk of sustainable growth usually becomes a way of distracting attention and offering excuses.” (LS #197.) Dettloff and Bernico argue that Pope Francis embraced degrowth – even suggesting, “That’s right, the pope said “degrowth.” (p.71.) (Actually, the quote from Laudato Si #193 actually reads: “We know how unsustainable is the behaviour of those who constantly consume and destroy, while others are not yet able to live in a way worthy of their human dignity. That is why the time has come to accept decreased growth in some parts of the world, in order to provide resources for other places to experience healthy growth.”) The 2025 message of the Catholic Church in the Global South goes much further, when it is stated: “We propose a model aligned with planetary boundaries and with goals for degrowth. A model that reduces demand and excessive consumption and promotes solidarity-based, circular and restorative economies.” (Call for Climate Justice, #26.)

Questions to Deepen Our Collective Reflection

As you prepare for our October online discussion of Enough Is Enough, consider these questions for reflection and conversation with the author.

1. Finding the right language

Is degrowth the most useful framework for describing the problems of the global economy? Might other terms be more precise, such as “post-growth,” “well-being economics,” “buen vivir,” or the authors’ term, “socialist degrowth”?

2. Exploring Catholic Social Teaching

Pope Benedict XVI called for “correcting models of growth,” as quoted by Francis in Laudato Si’ (§6). More recently, Leo XIV wrote in Magnifica Humanitas (§159):

“It is important to move beyond the current metrics of development – which for more than eighty years have been tied to the concept of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – since these metrics almost systematically neglect aspects essential to the overall wellbeing of people and the environment.”

Even without using the word itself, are the popes—and official Catholic teaching—now in favour of degrowth?

3. Considering our Christian response

Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism largely suggested that Christians were the architects of capitalism. Yet Acts 4:34–35 describes the earliest Christian communities living out values that challenge capitalism, while Matthew 6:24 teaches that a follower of Jesus cannot serve both God and Mammon.

In A Theology of Liberation (p. 17), Gustavo Gutiérrez argued for a social revolution and “the change to a new society, a socialist society – or at least allow that such a society might be possible.”

Where does this leave concerned Canadian Christians today?

4. Examining green growth

Can green growth and the transition to a fossil-free future avoid being grafted onto exploitative economic structures? What questions does this raise about initiatives such as Canada’s proposed “Projects of National Interest”?

5. Imagining renewed solidarity

Can the degrowth movement inspire renewed international development and solidarity, grounded in environmental responsibility, in the years ahead?

Enough Is Enough: Online Discussion on Degrowth, Capitalism, and Liberation Theology

Filed Under: Activities, Invitations & Announcements

Dean Detloff, is the Toronto-based research and advocacy officer of Development and Peace – Caritas Canada. Detloff, with co-author Matthew Bernico (a trade unionist living in Scotland) has published a new book that will surely be of interest to many ORCIE members and associates.

Please join us for an online discussion of this book, “Enough is Enough: Degrowth, Capitalism and Liberation Theology” published by Fortress Press in May 2026.

Date: Friday, October 23, 2026
Time: 2:00 p.m. EDT
Location: Online via Zoom (English only)
Register here: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/t6sV1DDSSLidNkPvEbTkCw

The themes of this engaging book deserve conversation and studied debate. While all are encouraged to obtain a copy and read the entire 115 pages, if that is not possible by the time of our webinar, what follows is a short review (as well as some possible questions) to whet our appetites for ORCIE’s on-line conversation with author Dean Detloff.

Find the book review here: https://orcie.org/enough-is-enough-exploring-degrowth-liberation-theology-and-new-economies-for-our-common-home/

Obtain a copy of the book here: Enough Is Enough: Degrowth, Capitalism, and Liberation Theology | Fortress Press

This online discussion is ORCIE’s contribution to the Canadian Religious Conference’s first JPIC National Day of Action on October 24, 2026, under the theme “Open Hands to Reinvent Earth.” Held on October 23 as a parallel action, our gathering responds to the initiative’s call to renew our relationship with Creation and align our economic and social systems with Earth’s capacities. By exploring the concept of “degrowth” and liberation theology together, we invite our members and associates to reflect on how our faith can inspire systemic change and bear witness to our shared commitment to care for our common home.

Small Wins, Long Fight: An Ask Before September 18

Filed Under: Activities

What do we do with a summer like this one?

The West Coast pipeline is moving toward approval. Years of environmental protections are being rolled back, one at a time and astonishingly fast. Tariffs are stoking a fear of their own, and the news cycle rarely lets up.

It would be reasonable to feel that none of this is within our control. And here is one thing you can do.

On August 1, the federal government opened a public comment period on whether to designate the West Coast Oil Pipeline a project of national interest, fast-tracking it past the usual environmental review. The notice arrived during a summer that needed no more bad news: the same weekend it was published, more than five thousand British Columbians were under evacuation orders, as wildfires burned across the province.

The comment period closes September 18. It is a real, legally required step, and it becomes part of the public record no matter what the government decides.

We are asking members of the ORCIE community to send a comment: not a form letter, a few honest paragraphs, in your own words, about why this decision matters to you.

It takes about 20 minutes. Read one section of our short guide, choose the argument that speaks to you most, and write. The guide walks through the five legal factors the government has to weigh. For anyone who wants the deeper context on the public money already behind this industry, our backgrounder on fossil fuel subsidies is here: Care for Creation, Not Extraction: Understanding why Canada must end fossil fuel subsidies.

We will not undo years of policy in thirty-one days, and that is not the point. This fight is made of moments like this one: small, bounded, ours to join. What we can offer is public witness: dissent, spoken plainly, put on the record, whatever the government decides. That, too, is faithfulness.
 

Guide to public comments on listing the West Coast Oil Pipeline as a project of national interest in ENGLISH and FRENCH.

Protecting Our Common Home: ORCIE’s Reflections on Earth for Sale

Filed Under: Activities

For many, Maude Barlow, as well as her incredible body of work, are well-known and deeply appreciated. Maude co-founded the Council of Canadians, served as senior water advisor to the UN, and in 2005, along with the late Tony Clarke (former co-Director of Social Affairs for the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops) was awarded the prestigious Right Livelihood Award.

Author of over 20 books—several of which focus on protecting people, the planet, and especially water—her latest publication, Earth for Sale: The Fight to Stop the Last Plunder of the Planet, is of direct interest to ORCIE and can provide guidance for our organization’s on‑going work. Released in early May 2026, Earth for Sale issues a clarion call to avoid “the financialization of nature.”

To prepare for ORCIE’s June 25, 2026, online discussion with Maude, we encourage everyone to read Earth for Sale – but if that is not possible by then, participants may appreciate this quick review of the issues that Maude is encouraging us to understand and mobilize around.

Earth for Sale begins with a stark quotation from British environmental writer, George Monbiot: “Climate breakdown is the result of a global failure to address the power of private capital.” This theme guides the entire book.

The “financialization of nature” is nothing less than “a threat to the planet and human survival” (pg.2) encompassing measures variously described as carbon trading, water pollution trading, biodiversity credits, wildlife conservation bonds, nature bonds, plastics offsets, nature-based solutions, green growth, natural capital, water futures and ecosystem services. All are advanced – usually at least initially in good faith – to address the environmental crisis. But they threaten to be “just as dangerous to the planet as the plunderers of old” (pg. 8).

These processes of financialization replace government responsibility and regulation with the transfer of authority over natural resources to the private sector. This is most often accomplished by government deregulation or privatization. But large international institutions have been more than willing to turn nature into “an asset class,” in effect bringing nature into the market—where, of course, market experts take control.

Private money streaming into the green economy has “exploded” (pg. 39). According to the UN Environment Programme, private finance for nature surged elevenfold in four years, from US$9.4 billion in 2020 to US$102 billion in 2024 (pg. 40).

How this is done is described in Chapter 2. We know that 69 of the top 100 economies of the world by revenue are not countries but transnational corporations. As they search for “carbon neutrality” or “net‑zero” emissions claims to protect their brand while nevertheless maintaining current operations, several strategies exist for them to invest in “green bonds,” “carbon offsets,” or “ecosystem services” that often result in greenwashing or even “carbon neocolonialism” (pg. 63).

What could possibly go wrong?

In the name of protecting the environment, in many instances, community control is redirected, or lost entirely. Indigenous communities are particularly affected when states turn over ancestral territories to asset managers or sovereign wealth funds (to promote, as the Carney federal government like to say, “Projects of National Interest”). There are many examples of these schemes providing little to no results – especially not to protection of the 1 million species that now face extinction in our world (pg. 140).

Earth for Sale provides several examples of “false carbon solutions”—the same warning raised by the Catholic Churches of the Global South in their recent manifestos (see A Just Transition: The Global South Churches’ Call for Climate Justice and Participation – The Office of Religious Congregations for Integral Ecology). Our recent advocacy efforts reveal how these same “false solutions” approach take shape on the ground. Several ORCIE members participated in the UN’s Biodiversity COP15 in Montreal in December 2022, where we—alongside many other organizations—advocated for a cap on plastic production. Yet no global plastics treaty has been achieved, even as companies have turned to the use of “plastic offsets.” Likewise, ORCIE worked in coalition with half-dozen faith-based organizations during the 2025 Turn Debt into Hope campaign. While this effort did not result in debt cancellation for countries of the Global South, “debt‑for‑nature swaps” (pg. 133; 149) have become increasingly prevalent.

As Barlow notes, several major conservation organizations—including The Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund, and the World Resources Institute—have partnered with the same financial actors advancing these market‑based environmental “solutions”.

Conclusion

In the afterword of Earth for Sale, we read: “You put your hand out to touch the universe in a way that you can affect it, however small that may feel to you. But – and this is important – you must have faith that many others around the world are doing the same, even though you cannot know who they all are or what they are contributing. Hope requires action; action requires hope. Both require faith in a larger good.”

Maude Barlow, and her writings, provide hope, faith and compel us to action.

Questions to Deepen Our Collective Reflection

To help guide your preparation for the June 25 online book launch and discussion, here are some questions you may find helpful to consider asking the author.

  • Is there a place for the private sector to play positive roles in the search for shared solutions to the environmental crisis? If so, what might good practices look like?
  • What are the best practices that prevent congregational investments from being unwittingly used by asset managers in the financialization of nature?
  • At the UN’s Climate COP26 in 2021, 40 countries agreed to phase out coal‑fired power. By COP28 in 2024, nearly 200 countries committed to transitioning away from fossil fuels. Building on this momentum, COP30 helped catalyze the first Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels, held in Santa Marta, Colombia, where 57 countries named the root causes of the climate crisis and the political and economic systems—including trade and investment treaties—that perpetuate it. In light of these developments, where can meaningful progress still be made in international forums for change?
  • If (as reported on page 186) two‑thirds of climate damage is created by just 10% of the population, what steps must be taken to “decarbonize the rich”?
  • One of your favourite quotes seems to be Martin Luther King Jr.’s: “It may be true that the law cannot change the heart, but it can restrain the heartless.” What laws do we need to see passed in Canada to restrain the financialization of nature?
  • In your 2022 book Still Hopeful: Lessons From a Life of Activism, you wrote that one of the lessons learned was to “go to the heart of the human story to touch hearts as well as minds if you want to get people out of their silos” (pg. 59). With that in mind, can you share some of the stories that moved you so deeply that they led you to write Earth for Sale?