Jesuits USA East completes two solar energy projects in Maryland

The USA East Province of the Society of Jesus flipped the switch this summer on two solar energy projects that will provide clean energy in Maryland.

On the 10th anniversary of Pope Francis’ environment encyclical “Laudato Si’,” the Jesuit community upgraded the energy sources at Colombiere Jesuit Community in Baltimore and Loyola on the Potomac Jesuit Retreat House in Faulkner. 

Developed in partnership with Catholic Energies, a program managed by Mission Energy working in conjunction with the Catholic Climate Covenant, the projects are expected to collectively produce more than 520,000 kilowatt hours and eliminate 356 tons of carbon dioxide annually.

The Universal Apostolic Preferences of the global Society of Jesus, approved by Pope Francis in 2019, named “collaboration in the care of our common home” as one of four orientations for all Jesuits and Jesuit-sponsored institutions. In 2024, Jesuit Superior General Father Arturo Sosa approved the UEA Apostolic Plan, which offers priorities for Jesuit life and ministry that integrate the UAPs into the context, reality and needs of communities across the province. 

Among those priorities and goals, Jesuits and colleagues are to become active environmental citizens, and our communities and institutions are to promote ecological justice across the province. 

“We are called to live out a ‘faith that does justice,’” said Jesuit Father Joseph O’Keefe, provincial of the UEA Province, in a media release. “These solar projects put into action our commitment to care for our common home.” 

The journey of the UEA Province with Catholic Energies began in 2023, when the Jesuits explored province-owned properties for solar energy projects. The expertise of Catholic Energies helped the province navigate the complicated regulatory and financing landscape of solar energy development. 

Catholic Energies staff members met with onsite facilities managers at each site; collected utility bills and property information; assessed roof and other site conditions; analyzed federal, state and local incentives and regulations; and created a preliminary design and cost/benefit analysis model. 

These projects were in part made possible by state and federal incentives that encouraged the development of renewable energy projects. 

In the 2023 apostolic exhortation “Laudate Deum,” Pope Francis wrote that “the necessary transition toward clean energy sources such as wind and solar energy, and the abandonment of fossil fuels, is not progressing at the necessary speed.” 

Pope Leo XIV has continued the call for global cooperation to address the ecological crisis, saying, “it is time to move from words to action.”

The UEA Province hopes that the solar projects at Colombiere and Faulkner inspire individuals and institutions associated with the Jesuits to move away from fossil fuels.

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