Rooted in the Land, Connected to the World: Integral Ecology Immersion in Pedro II, Brazil

03/11/2026

 

From July 26 to August 4, 2026, the Saint Angela Foundation in Pedro II, in the heart of Piauí, Brazil, hosted the Integral Ecology Immersion Gathering. Educators, lay collaborators and Ursuline Sisters from ten countries came together for ten days of shared life, listening and discernment: Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela, Guyana, Ireland, Kenya, South Africa, Indonesia and Australia.

Convened by the Ursuline Integral Ecology Core Group on behalf of the Ursuline Generalate, the gathering is part of an in-person formation journey across three regions, following the African immersion held in KwaZulu-Natal earlier this year. Its purpose was to deepen participants' experience of integral ecology and ecological conversion, both personal and communal, in response to the call of Laudato Si' and the Ursuline General Chapter.

 

 

Over those days, participants walked the land, listened closely to the stories of the place and its people, and came to know the Saint Angela Foundation as a living, embodied pedagogy of integral ecology. In Portuguese, Spanish and English, they shared their own stories, took in the region's ecological, social and cultural diversity, and visited local initiatives where Laudato Si' is already part of everyday life.

The photos and videos published here capture that experience: the faces, landscapes, conversations and gestures of a community learning to care for our common home together, and taking that hope back to schools and communities on five continents.

"Everything is interconnected, and this invites us to develop a spirituality
of that global solidarity which flows from the mystery of the Trinity."
— Pope Francis, Laudato Si', 240

Rafael Bianchi