Jaazeal Jakosalem, Augustinian Recollect, president of ARCORES.

The Augustinian Recollect Jaazeal Jakosalem (San Carlos City, Negros Occidental, Philippines, 1973) He has chaired the ARCORES International Solidarity Network since 2022, as well as the Commission of Social Apostolate of the Augustinian Recollects. We interviewed him.

As president of ARCORES, what would you like to be your main contribution to the task that has been entrusted to you?

My predecessors in this position have worked intensely so that ARCORES became today in this Network of the social mission of the Order, after the complete integration of Haren Alde and of previous institutions, associations and projects in the solidarity field, whether local, provincial or national.

I think I must simply continue what they have started, because this task always is from the Order, it should not be personalized to someone specific. ARCORES has its own Strategic Plan in force (2023-2025), which guides our work and determines the progress of the Network in the future.

You have been a climate activist for many years and participate in the different phases of the Climate Conferences (COP); You have collaborated in the founding of Earth Alliance (Pusyon Kinaiyahan) in Cebu (Philippines) and you have even received the “green ring” of Al Gore’s The Climate Reality Project Foundation. Why this specific vocation ?

The concern for the environment has its roots in monastic traditions and the Church has a lot to offer in everything related to the care of Nature, from the vision most spiritual to the most practical struggle.

I believe that my activism comes from this ecclesial influence, I am convinced that the Church has to be present in this social discussion to speak with compassion, above all, about those who suffer the consequences of the climate crisis and those who have no voice or vote to defend.

We have collaborated a lot with environmental movements, such as with the Movement Global Laudato Si ; (LSM) or the Living Laudato Si’ movement (LLS). In all modesty, we worked hard to collect almost a million signatures in the Philippines that were presented during COP21 Paris by the Global Catholic Climate Movement, now called Laudato Si’ Movement. This task strongly cemented the presence of Catholic environmental circles within of the general fight for the care of the Common Home.

Laudate Deum, Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation, Provides Immediate Guidance very interesting and practical to advance this ecological concern of the Church.

Firstly, it makes a clear scientific statement of the Climate Crisis, against the denialisms, which try to spread their story everywhere.

Secondly, it grants a very important role to faith communities to advance in the protection of nature. By recognizing the final failures of the Conferences on the climate and the existence of major polluters, Pope Francis emphasizes that “the world that surrounds us is not an object of exploitation, unbridled use and unlimited ambition.” The Catholic can no longer have doubts about which side of the scale he is on.

Thirdly, we can highlight the great task that the immediacy of the energy transition entails, the most viable solution to the climate crisis, a priority concern of COP28 this year’s Dubai.

One of the most interesting paths that ARCORES wants to take is the promotion of “due diligence”, the creation of a legal framework that forces companies to be responsible for the damage they cause to the environment and local communities. In what point are we at?

The problem of requiring due diligence is closely related to the Augustinian-Recollect Family, since some of our communities are working on the new climate frontiers, especially in the Amazon region, in Sierra Leone, or in Indonesia.

These are the areas most affected by environmental abuses and the continued violation of the human rights of indigenous peoples, coastal, rural or whose main habitat is tropical rainforests.

Our missionaries have stories to tell about social and environmental struggles of these towns and communities, which they have made their own. Your involvement offers us real testimonies of all this intense and immense inhuman suffering.

Contacts and networking are also very important for this. Just so, REDES, is the name of the organization that in Spain represents and brings together all the tasks and socio-evangelizing projects of religious families within the sphere of consecrated life.

This platform, to which ARCORES belongs, makes it easier for us to encounter these realities global and allow us to work actively in the search for an authentic commitment and truth of the Spanish Parliament in this field.

ARCORES offers within REDES the experience of our national branches in these areas most affected by the climate crisis; On the one hand we can provide help and assistance, time that we receive information and knowledge from them about how far the problem goes in each region.

Is the Augustinian-Recollect Family an Eco-Family?

Although all members of the Augustinian-Recollect Family (consecrated, lay people of the Fraternities, young JAR) have their priorities regarding the progress of their way of life and vocation, we also always encourage you to include among your training and activities a ecological response from a comprehensive social approach.

Religious communities, Fraternities and JAR can contribute a lot in this field, since the Augustinian Recollect charisma has as its own note solidarity and fraternity, key values in the ecological task.

In general, I believe that we can contribute enormously in two parallel directions: the personal testimony and the institutional or community response.

Personal testimony lies in simple acts that can have great impact: avoiding use of plastic and paper, reduce water consumption, recycle garbage, cook only what it is reasonably going to be consumed, show care for other living beings, use the public transportation or sharing a private vehicle, planting trees, avoiding all transportation costs unnecessary energy, reuse… There are so many simple ways to take care of the planet!

The institutional or community response is also very important to achieve change. constitutive. Among other possibilities, there is disinvestment in companies that have contributed or contribute to the destruction of the environment; or, in a more purposeful, embrace the energy transition in our buildings through the use of energy clean and renewable in them whenever possible.

All this is important for us as a Family, because ecological conversion is possible and, if we do our part, we can all end the destruction of the planet, to care for the gift of Creation for future generations.