Three chickens bring the mind of Laudato if ‘

In the parish garden of the Saint-Jean-Bosco church in Paris (20th arrondissement), three red hens are walking around, picking here and there, under the amused gaze of the gamins of the leisure center. A farmyard in the parish priest’s garden? Original – especially in Paris -, the initiative is nonetheless rich in meaning: “As children are attracted by chickens, this allows us to dialogue with families who never put our noses in the church”, observes Xavier Ernst, parish priest of this church located in a popular district.

“The idea came in September 2021 to the children of the catechism and the Laudato Si ‘group, thus baptized in reference to the encyclical published by Pope Francis in June 2015 and devoted to environmental and social issues”, recalls Céline Aubert, professor of schools and member of this group who brings together a dozen parishioners. Each in turn watches to eat to the gallinaceae and to change the straw of the chicken coop, made from recovered wooden pallets. The eggs are given to children who also appreciate “the pancakes that we make with it, certain Sundays”, adds Céline Aubert. Establishment of a compost with the help of the town hall, gardening workshops, cultivation and maintenance of the vegetable patch where tomatoes, salads, onions, strawberries in the summer season, conference organization, reception of an AMAP (association for the maintenance of peasant agriculture) where residents come to pick up their basket of market gardeners … The Laudato group if it does not lack activities.

Pie n’euf and heavenpoule

But the stars in the neighborhood are the hens! Each has a surname, chosen by the young people of chaplaincy. After John-Poule II, “beheaded by a shackle from the Père-Lachaise cemetery in 2023, during the scoundrel strike,” said Xavier Ernst, then Poulidor who also passed the weapon on the left, succeeded Pius N’Euf (named after the Pope who welcomed, in 1854 in Rome, Don Bosco, founder of the Salésiens of Don Bosco) and Heavenpoule (in reference to the Belgian cyclist Evenepoel). Reported from Normandy by Brother Alban, the volatiles joined Nuggets in the enclosure in September 2024.

“Our goal is to bring encyclical to life Laudato if ‘ Within the parish, by highlighting what exists here. And today, all the dynamics of the garden shine in the neighborhood, ”says the priest Xavier Ernst.