Villanova University, Pope Leo XIV’s alma mater, has announced that Cardinal Michael Czerny, S.J., will be the first recipient of the Pope Leo XIV Sustainability Medal. He will receive the medal from the Pope himself on October 13 during Villanova University’s International Sustainability Conference.
The Canadian Jesuit is the prefect emeritus of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. His ministry “has focused on social justice, human rights, migration and refugees,” according to the award’s web page.
A recognition and a commitment
Villanova University president Fr. Peter Donohue, O.S.A., announced the award winner during a press conference in Rome on September 14 (the Pope's birthday).
The new award “seeks to inspire leadership, encourage innovation, and promote collaboration in building a more just and sustainable world,” he said. Cardinal Czerny was in attendance, as was Fr. Joseph Farrell, O.S.A., the Prior General of the Augustinian Order, which founded and sponsors Villanova.
“I commend Villanova for courage to stand up in this very public way to say we pledge to serve society by preparing people to take real responsibility for the world that is coming into being,” Cardinal Czerny commented, as reported by Vatican News. This includes “not just ecological responsibility, but also responsibility for artificial intelligence” as well as “political responsibility.”
The cardinal pointed out that the medal also reminds the university of its own responsibility towards its students: “Now there are very serious questions about the future, and to say we prepare you for the future is a very bold promise.”
In touch with today’s issues
Cardinal Czerny has in-depth experience with important challenges facing the world today, and not just from his work at the Vatican. The cardinal himself is a migrant, having been born in Brno in what was then Czechoslovakia in 1946 and moving with his family to Canada in 1948. He also has exercised his ministry in Latin America and Africa, where he was deeply involved in promoting social justice, defending human rights, and serving those most in need.
He joined the Jesuits in 1963 and was ordained to the priesthood 10 years later. In 1979, he co-founded the Jesuit Centre for Social Faith and Justice in Toronto. A decade later, after six Jesuits were assassinated in El Salvador, Czerny volunteered to take the place of one of them. His offer was accepted, and he became the director of the Central American University’s Institute for Human Rights.
Africa and Rome
In 1992, he was transferred to the Jesuit General Curia in Rome. His work there focused on social justice and ecology. Then, in 2002, he founded and was the first director of the African Jesuit AIDS Network. This organization ministers to people with HIV/AIDS across Africa, providing spiritual, medical, and educational support.
In 2010, at the end of his time in Africa, he was called to Rome to serve as a consultant to the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. Pope Francis appointed him Undersecretary of the Section for Migrants and Refugees of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development in 2017. He became a bishop and cardinal in 2019.
In 2022, he became the prefect of the dicastery; he served in this role until September 1 of this year.
