Columban Fr Dan Harding (left) aboard the ship to visit the penguins, the sea lions and the marine otters with the children and ColumbanFr Iowane Gukibau (right). Photo: Fr Dan Harding
One of the most exciting and dynamic global Columban programs is the Society Invitation to Mission (SIM) program, which offers interested persons hands-on, short-term, interactive mission experiences with Columban missionaries living in other cultures. These experiences can run from several weeks to a year.
During 2026, the Columban Mission in Chile sponsored two SIM programs that ran concurrently. From Ireland came Dan Rooks, a young man seeking a mission experience with the Columbans in Chile, during the winter months of June and July. And from Peru, for 16 days at the end of June and the beginning of July, came eight young adult catechists and youth leaders from the Columban parish of San Marcos Apostol in Lima, also seeking a mission experience. The theme of the two SIM 2026 experiences in Chile was: “Enhancing our ecological conversions - Living with a Creation Spirituality”.
In Pope Francis’s 2015 encyclical Laudato Si' - On Care for Our Common Home, he reminds us that all Christians need an: “ecological conversion, whereby the effects of their encounter with Jesus Christ become evident in their relationship with the world around them.” And: “Living our vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or secondary aspect of our Christian experience.” Laudato Si' no. 217
An “ecological conversion” involves recognising God as the Creator of all and seeking to connect with and be in relation with the rest of God’s sacred creation and: “acknowledge the ways in which we have harmed God’s creation through our actions and our failure to act. We need to experience a conversion, or change of heart.” Laudato Si' no. 218
We need to commit ourselves to action and to becoming good stewards of God´s creation.
ENHANCING AN ECOLOGICAL CONVERSION AMONG SCHOOL-AGED CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS IN SAN MATÍAS PARISH IN SANTIAGO, CHILE
During the first week of the Winter School Holidays in Chile, at the end of June, 70 school-aged children and adolescents gathered each day for a week-long Creation Spirituality program in the Columban parish of San Matias in Santiago. This parish is located in a socio-economically impoverished and marginalised area where families struggle with poverty, unemployment, substance abuse, and criminal violence.
Aboard the ship to visit the penguins, the sea lions and the marine otters. Photo: Fr Dan Harding
The children were divided into four groups with local parishioners and the nine SIM participants as their guides for the entire week. Each group was named after a native Chilean animal - Chungungos (marine otters), Pudus (native Chilean deer, the world´s smallest), the Monito del Monte (a small native Chilean marsupial), and the Martín Pescador (a native Chilean Kingfisher).
The catechists and youth leaders from San Matias parish, as well as the SIM participants from Ireland and Peru and the three participating Columban priests (Frs Dan Harding, Rafael Ramirez and Pepe Seong) led the children during the week in a variety of activities.
These activities included planting native Chilean trees and shrubs in small botanical gardens that they had created, going on nature walks in a nearby park to see hummingbirds and many other bird species, visiting a local zoo to see the native animals there, and visiting the Natural History Museum to see displays of Chile´s many distinct ecosystems. There was a lot of art, music, song, drama, and dance in which the children were able to express their love and stewardship for all other species, who are all our fellow companions in God´s Holy Creation.
One of the highlights of this Creation Spirituality week included the several celebrations of the Eucharist and other liturgies that offered thanksgiving and praise to God the Creator for the gift of creation, a sense of communion with other non-human inhabitants of creation, repentance for the harm done to God´s gift of creation, and concrete ideas and actions on how to change and become good stewards of creation.
LET US GO AND SEE THE PENGUINS, THE SEA LIONS AND THE MARINE OTTERS
Following the children´s Winter School Holiday program, the nine SIM participants (from Peru and Ireland), along with Frs Dan Harding and Rafael Ramirez, participated in a week-long Creation Spirituality Retreat at the Columban house at Algarrobo on the Pacific Ocean coast. These were the five main elements of the retreat:
1. Connecting with the world, to be in communion with God's Holy Creation
We were asked to spend time in silence, connecting with the world - with the towering snow-capped Andes Mountain Range in the distance, the Pacific Ocean in front of them, the coast, the wetlands, the forests, the deserts and the sky: “Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with coloured flowers and herbs”. Laudato Si' no. 1, Canticle of St Francis of Assisi.
2. Connecting with and being in communion with all of God's Holy species
On a boat trip to an offshore island near Algarrobo, we viewed two penguin colonies - Humboldt and Magellan - as well as sea lions, marine otters, and dozens of migratory bird species. “All powerful God, you are present in the whole universe and in the smallest of our creatures. You embrace with tenderness all that exists.” A Prayer for the Earth - Laudato Si'.
3. Acknowledging how we have harmed God's Creation - Laudato Si' no. 218
4. Offering the Eucharist, prayer, liturgies, art, poetry, dance, music, drama, quiet time alone
Offering in prayer to God the Creator all our reflections and gifts to be used as stewards as we commit ourselves to caring for our common home.
5. Deciding on the next steps
How do we carry the fruits of this ecological conversion back to the parish in Lima? What concrete activities are we committed to? Through our two recent Columban SIM programs in Chile, we have pushed the horizons of what a short-term Columban missionary experience can be about. Amongst many other things, it can also mean going to see the penguins, the sea lions and the marine otters and having a sense of communion with them - as fellow creatures of our Creator God.
Columban Fr Dan Harding lives and works in Chile.
Listen to "Enhancing ecologican conversions in Chile"
Related links
- Read more from The Far East - September/October 2026
