Earlier this month, Jesuit priest and outspoken climate activist. Father Jörg Alt entered the Nürnberg Correctional Facility—not as a chaplain, but as an inmate.
On April 1, the 63-year-old priest began serving a 25-day prison sentence after refusing to pay a fine tied to a 2022 environmental protest.
Fr Alt, known for his vocal stance on climate justice, had been convicted by the Nürnberg District Court for participating in a peaceful blockade of the city’s main train station on August 16, 2022. The protest, led primarily by young activists, was in response to what they viewed as the German Federal Ministry of Transport’s failure to uphold the nation’s climate laws.
While the court imposed a €500 fine—€10 per day for 50 days—Fr Alt declined to pay, citing his Jesuit vow of poverty and a desire not to absolve the government of its moral accountability.
“This decision was my final means of drawing attention to pressing issues regarding climate change,” Fr Alt is reported to have said before reporting to prison.
Though the fine was modest, Fr Alt noted the irony that the cost of incarcerating him—estimated at €4,500 based on a daily facility rate of €170—would far exceed the penalty he was refusing to pay. A crowdfunding campaign launched in solidarity with him has pledged any surplus funds to support other activists facing legal repercussions.
Fr Alt’s incarceration may be unusual, but it is not unprecedented. The Jesuit order, known for its intellectual, social, and spiritual contributions to the Church, has also long embraced a tradition of civil disobedience in response to injustice. From Fr Daniel Berrigan’s anti-war protests in the United States to the late Fr Stan Swamy’s advocacy for indigenous rights in India, Jesuits have frequently placed themselves at the crossroads of faith and activism.
Fr Alt’s particular concern is the widening global inequality caused by climate change. He argues that industrialized nations, particularly those in the Global North, bear historical and moral responsibility for a crisis that disproportionately affects the Global South—regions that have contributed least to emissions yet suffer the most from climate-related disasters.
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