Throughout 2025, John Carroll University, in collaboration with the Hank Center at Loyola University Chicago, will be hosting an online, seven-part series of events, entitled “Envisioning a Livable Future,” marking the tenth anniversary of Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home. In that work, Francis named climate change “one of the principal challenges facing humanity in our day,” proposed an analysis of “the human roots of the ecological crisis,” and identified elements of an ecological vision that might help us “escape the spiral of self-destruction” that lies before us.
“Envisioning a Livable Future” aims to create lively interdisciplinary dialogues:
1) raising ecological consciousness;
2) drawing attention to climate-forward initiatives;
3) encouraging both personal discernment and social action.
In addition to the online discussions, we are also hosting additional events live on campus for the JCU community. The first event will be held live online on Wednesday January 29th at 5:00 pm in the O’Connell Reading Room in the Dolan Science Center. We will be hosting an environmental careers alumni panel with six recent JCU alumni. The panel will include an open Q & A session as well as time for socializing, and will be followed by a campus watch party of the first discussion in the seminar “The Current State of Climate Science,” featuring Katharine Hayhoe, Ben Sovacool, and Nancy Tuchman. Warm appetizers will be served at both the panel and watch party. To help us arrange catering, please RSVP for the alumni panel here.
Please join us on January 29th and mark your calendar for the series ahead. See the list of upcoming events and register for Zoom links at www.jcu.edu/livable-future.