By James Bruggers
Inside Climate News
March 31, 2026
Father Joe Mitchell works to create a “new story” that recognizes the interconnectedness of people and nature.
LOUISVILLE, Ky.—Father Joe Mitchell, a Passionist priest, returned home here in 2004 to create a nonprofit center that focuses on what he saw as two major disconnects.
One is a gap between people and God. The other is between people and the natural world. […]
The Passionist Earth & Spirit Center, which he led for most of the past two decades, sits on 27 acres between a Passionist monastery established more than a century ago and one of the three branches of Beargrass Creek, the stream that drains most of Louisville into the Ohio River.
