When I graduated college in 2008, I was full of hope.
The energy of Obama’s “hope and change” campaign was in the air, and my organizing work at Notre Dame had convinced me that institutions could evolve.
But in 2009, when climate legislation collapsed in the Senate, I was devastated.
It felt like the environmental movement the many parts of the business community that had rallied around climate action, didn’t fully understand the power they were up against.
I felt devastated that the forces of capital supremacy were stronger than our dreams for change.
I committed myself to grassroots organizing — working with communities to build environmental and economic justice from the ground up.
Yet as those years unfolded, I yearned for something more — a way to bring my spiritual life and my public life into deeper alignment.
When Pope Francis published Laudato Si’, it stirred something in me.
Here was a leader naming the spiritual sickness at the heart of our ecological and economic crises — consumerism, a technocratic paradigm, disconnection.
And then, in 2019, Francis wrote a letter to young economists and entrepreneurs, inviting us to “bring a soul to the economy of tomorrow.”
I felt personally called — as if Abuelo Francis had reached across the world to say:
“This is your time. Build workshops of hope. Be a protagonist of transformation.”
I wasn’t alone. Tens of thousands of young people around the world said yes to that invitation.
In that spirit, Elizabeth, Colin, Sr. Sue, myself and others formed the Francesco Collaborative — a small part of a greater movement seeking to root economic life in human dignity, not concentrating wealth.
Francis’s leadership taught me a new way to lead:
- Make time for those at the margins. Francis visited a prison on Holy Thursday. How often have I visited the imprisoned? The sacrifice zones?
- Live simply. Francis lived in the Guest house.
- Speak truth to power while building bridges of dialogue.
- Elevate women and marginalized voices into decision-making.
- Flatten hierarchies and invite discernment.
In a world overwhelmed by cynicism and violence, he showed us that spiritual leadership must be both bold in vision and tender and warm in practice.
For me, that is the call today:
To be an ambassador of hope.
To trust that if we sow faithfully, if we build patiently, if we dare to believe in a deeper belonging — a different kind of economy, and a different kind of future, is possible.
For this gift of purpose and courage, I am deeply grateful.