{"id":6288,"date":"2026-03-02T14:04:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T14:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.maryknollsociety.org\/magazine\/?p=6288"},"modified":"2026-03-09T14:52:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T14:52:20","slug":"a-return-to-the-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.maryknollsociety.org\/magazine\/a-return-to-the-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"A Return to the Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For the Jubilee Year, a cohort of young Catholics walked together through cobblestoned Italian streets, united by their passion for climate action. The group, made up of Maryknoll Young Adult Ambassadors<\/a> and Catholic Climate Covenant Young Adults,<\/a> convened in Rome last October for a pilgrimage of hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ray Almanza<\/a>, who led the trip as a Maryknoll mission educator and promoter, says he wanted the pilgrimage to have its own flavor. \u201cThe particular angle that we wanted to give is environmental justice that looks not only at the big needs, but at the forgotten people within those places \u2014 people of color and immigrant communities, especially climate refugees.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Catholic Climate Covenant, Maryknoll\u2019s partner on the pilgrimage, is a nonprofit organization that offers resources and training for parishes, schools and universities. One of such resources is the Wholemakers curriculum<\/a>, developed by young adults from the Covenant and Maryknoll, which serves as a roadmap to climate action that integrates scientific data, spirituality and a framework for collective action. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe spirit of striving and wanting more is inherent in our Church,\u201d says Diana Marin<\/a>, the Covenant\u2019s program manager for Young Adult Mobilization. \u201cThere\u2019s a sacred potential \u2026 a sacred anger,\u201d she says. \u201cWe can tap into that, not ignore it, but hold it with clarity, with discernment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Listening to the anxieties of young people is key, Marin says. \u201cThey see the complexity of these issues and want to figure out their role. We need spaces that can foster young people to pursue the work that God is calling them toward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Lauren
Lauren Pusich walks through the Holy Door at St. Peter\u2019s Basilica. (Andrea Moreno-D\u00edaz\/Vatican City)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To find that space, the pilgrims sought inspiration and connection with nature in the sunny hills of Assisi, hometown of St. Francis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There, Maryknoll YA Ambassador Luna Stephanie<\/a> shared pivotal moments of St. Francis\u2019 life and spirituality. For Luna, who serves the impoverished Tenderloin community in San Francisco, the saint models her ministry<\/a>. \u201cHe was a rebel,\u201d she says. \u201cSt. Francis articulates my faith and how I live out my values.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While in Assisi, the group visited the Eremo delle Carceri \u2014 the hermitage where Francis and his friars often went on retreat. In the surrounding forest, participants joined in an activity offering rocks, flowers and branches to Pachamama<\/a>, Mother Earth in the Indigenous Quechua language of South America. Setting out for San Damiano \u2014 where St. Francis was called to rebuild the Church \u2014 the pilgrims read his \u201cCanticle of the Creatures\u201d and reflected on how to answer that call today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI sat in one of the caves and really tried to articulate these things that I believe so deeply in: presence, justice, unity, peace,\u201d says Connor Murray<\/a>, a Catholic Climate Covenant young adult from Massachusetts. \u201cI have a much better sense now of what those words mean to me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the town of Castel Gandolfo<\/a>, the pilgrims attended the first day of the Raising Hope Conference with Pope Leo XIV to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Laudato Si\u2019<\/em><\/a>. A melting piece of glacial ice from Greenland<\/a> was placed on the stage to represent the urgency of climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Maryknoll
Maryknoll Young Adult Ambassadors (left to right) Andr\u00e9s Garc\u00eda, Brinkley Johnson, Luna Stephanie and Ogechi Akalegbere pause for a photo in Assisi, where they walked in the footsteps of St. Francis and meditated on his \u201cCanticle of the creatures.\u201d (Andrea Moreno-D\u00edaz\/Italy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ogechi Akalegbere<\/a>, a Maryknoll YA ambassador, works as a campus minister at Howard University in Washington, D.C. As the daughter of Nigerian immigrants, she says she\u2019s \u201ckeenly aware who\u2019s at the table, who gets invited and who gets listened to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For people struggling to meet basic needs, she says, climate change might not seem like an urgent issue. But when she did tenant organizing in Montgomery County, Maryland, she saw a different picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s an intersection of housing injustice and environmental injustice,\u201d Akalegbere says. \u201cData centers in lower-income neighborhoods<\/a> compound the impact and strain on health factors in communities that are already battling so much.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the conference, Pope Leo urged a \u201creturn to the heart.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe heart is the place where the deepest searching takes place, where the most authentic desires are discovered, where one\u2019s ultimate identity is found, and where decisions are formed,\u201d the pope said. \u201cIt is only by returning to the heart that a true ecological conversion can take place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Maryknoll YA Ambassador Andr\u00e9s Garc\u00eda, the heart cannot be discounted. \u201cIt\u2019s how God gives me strength,\u201d he says. \u201cThat connection with God is what calls me to fight injustice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Born in Colombia, Garc\u00eda is pursuing a master\u2019s degree in peace and justice at the University of San Diego. As an ambassador, he says, \u201cyou have to have joy to bring the message to others. Maryknoll has given us examples of priests, sisters and lay people who motivate us as young adults to change the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brinkley Johnson, another YA ambassador, says, \u201cThere\u2019s a deep need for repair and healing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"During
During the pilgrimage, the young adults attended the Raising Hope Conference with Pope Leo XIV on the climate change crisis. Top row from left to right: Sarahi Unzueta, Connor Murray, Ray Almanza, Brinkley Johnson, Diana Marin, Luna Stephanie, Kathleen O\u2019Brien, Lauren Pusich, Jes\u00fas \u201cPaco\u201d Estrada, Ogechi Akalegbere. Front row, kneeling: Amanda Judah, Kayla Jacobs, Andr\u00e9s Garc\u00eda. (Andrea Moreno-D\u00edaz\/Italy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Johnson, who is studying for a master\u2019s degree in restorative justice at the University of San Diego, volunteered for two years at Annunciation House<\/a>, a network of migrant shelters in El Paso, Texas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMore migration will occur if we don\u2019t address the root causes,\u201d she says, \u201cand respond in humane and dignifying ways with our best creativity and hope.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2025, Garc\u00eda and Johnson received a Laudato Si\u2019 Award from the Diocese of San Diego<\/a> for their ecological work with young adults.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in Rome, the pilgrims walked through the Holy Door of the Basilica of St. Mary Major to visit the resting place of one of their heroes: Pope Francis<\/a>. Kneeling in front of his tomb, they tearfully mourned the pope who had referred to the young as \u201cthe very embodiment of hope.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPope Francis always championed the voices of young people,\u201d says Jes\u00fas \u201cPaco\u201d Estrada<\/a>, a Catholic Climate Covenant young adult from Los Angeles. \u201cYoung people are the leaders of today, not tomorrow. We are here to take action in the present.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The group attended a papal audience and passed through the Holy Door at St. Peter\u2019s Basilica. The next day, they attended the Mass for the Jubilee of Missions and Migrants, joining \u201cthe larger community of pilgrims traveling from around the world to show solidarity for migrants, for the poor, for creation,\u201d Luna says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pilgrimage culminated with the music of international performers at the Festival of Peoples in the Gardens of Castel Sant\u2019Angelo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ray Almanza, who now serves with his family in Bolivia with Maryknoll Lay Missioners<\/a>, says he has witnessed the transformative power of many such encounters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI see people on these trips not knowing what to expect,\u201d he says. \u201cThey\u2019re unsure; they\u2019re strangers.\u201d Through the shared experiences of an immersion trip, he says, they become a community. \u201cThey\u2019re on fire when they return,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s really no substitute for bringing them to the well and having them drink from that well,\u201d Almanza says. \u201cTheir faith is nourished. They return home with their sense of mission alive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Featured Image: Maryknoll\u2019s young adult ambassadors joined with Catholic Climate Covenant young adults for a Jubilee pilgrimage to Italy last fall commemorating the 10th anniversary of the encyclical Laudato Si\u2019: On Care for Our Common Home. (Andrea Moreno-D\u00edaz\/Italy)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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