In May of 2021 the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development launched a seven-year journey to sustainability in the spirit of Pope Francis’s landmark encyclical. It is a call to the universal church, an invitation to seven sectors: families, parishes and dioceses, educational institutions, health care centers, the economy, organizations and groups, and religious orders to take concrete steps toward a sustainable future in the spirit of Laudato Si’.
The plan outlines seven broad goals: Response to the Cry of Earth; Response to the Cry of the Poor; Ecological Economics; Simple Lifestyles; Ecological Education; Ecological Spirituality; and Community Involvement and Participatory Action that will focus our common journey.
Religious congregations’ participation is built on three pillars: public commitment to the seven-year journey; transition to integral ecology; and networking and advocacy for systemic change at the local, national and international levels. Organizers understand that each institute’s plans for this seven-year journey must be informed by their own charism, experience and situation, and are charting the journey with that in mind. We hope the process will connect with the congregation’s charism and enliven its mission and ministry building on what religious communities are already doing.
The Laudato Si’ Action Platform can help to raise awareness about the project and provide guides, toolkits and support for the journey forward. This interactive website is available to Catholic institutions worldwide and provides a framework to help implement the seven goals in a manner tailored to local circumstances.
The Laudato Si’ Action Platform brings together the incredible people, prayers, and actions of the universal Church in a single global framework that can be adapted and tailored to the needs of people around the world. Working through the power of the Holy Spirit, it will create a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.
LCWR works closely with partners to support religious institutes seven-year journey.
(Collaboration of the JPIC Commission of the UISG/USG and the Global Catholic Climate Movement)
We offer the following resources as an introduction to the Laudato Si’ Action Platform: