VOICES
Prophets of a Future Not Our Own MARIE THERESE KANE (Holy Cross ’17)
our shared faith and Jesuit education, we
dismissed school early because there was
come from different worlds. Our country
no water; their natural water source dried
was responsible for this headline, and yet,
up a few years ago, forcing it to rely on
the decision would disproportionately
biweekly, unreliable shipments.
impact Loyola Xavier students. The U.S.
In 2017, I traveled to Bangalore, India, for a month-long academic immersion through College of the Holy Cross. Exploring “Social Justice in Context,” my peers and I dove into issues of development, globalization, gender, caste, and religious diversity. One weekend, we traveled to Manvi, a rural village, to visit Loyola Xavier School, which educates students who face discrimination as members of the Dalit caste. Dalits, or “untouchables,” sit on the lowest rung of the Hindu caste system. At Loyola Xavier, we participated in the morning assembly, during which students read aloud the daily news headlines. This is where I heard the headline from June 1, 2017: “United States withdraws from the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.” The announcement struck me; it interrupted a moment of kinship between Loyola Xavier and Holy Cross students with a reminder that, despite
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is the largest greenhouse gas emitter on
Climate change can be subtle in its
the planet, responsible for 27 percent of
interruptions; its everyday tragedies do
global historical emissions, while India,
not always make the headlines. As an
despite being the fourth largest emitter
international studies major at a Jesuit,
today, is responsible for only three per-
liberal arts college, however, I fought
cent of historic emissions.
the urge to view the unsettling scenes as isolated phenomena, unfortunate
The announcement’s drama was
parts of what it means to be poor or
magnified as we observed the
Indian. These events are emblematic
inconvenience and insecurity of a
of larger climate trends and call us
climate-changed world during our trip.
to pay attention and act now in
Manvi was in its third year of an extreme
ways we have not before.
drought, which had made food, water, and employment scarce. Temperatures spiked to 106 degrees as we drove through the village. Our windows framed scenes that continue to haunt me—bridges reaching across empty valleys where rivers used to flow, miles of dusty, barren soil, and a few scattered women bowed over farming tools, trying to till life out of the scorched earth. Father Arun Luis, SJ, the principal of Loyola Xavier, shared that many students asked to stay at school over their last summer break so that they would have food to eat. Scenes did not improve in Bangalore, where we watched as Catholic school teachers
The Call to Act While many Jesuit schools have begun to address climate change through dialogue and on-campus mitigation efforts, its urgency demands a conversion that is distinctive to our Jesuit identity. By educating the Dalit children in India, the Jesuits take a radical stance against an
