Laudato Si Week - 'Don't let this Laudato Si moment pass'

The first anniversary of Laudato Si', the papal encyclical on 'Care for our Common Home', was marked in Sri Lanka by a weekend in Colombo focusing on each chapter of Laudato Si'. The event included exhibitions, mini conferences, learning about organic agriculture, and short films. "We distributed the translation of the encyclical among groups to come up with ideas and it has taken readers through the process of seeing, judging and acting with regard to the ecological and environmental crisis we are facing today," said an organiser. One outcome was a petition to the Sri Lankan president to avoid projects that harm biodiversity.

In the Philippines, local members of the Global Catholic Climate Movement - such as the Columban parish at Malate in Manila - celebrated Laudato Si' Week, 12-19 June, with conferences, public events, and liturgies, involving parishes, schools and church groups. On 18 June an interfaith Symposium on Laudato Si' themes was organised in Manila. Archbishop Ramon Arguelles of Lipa has been among Church leaders heading mass protests in recent months against plans to build around 25 new coal-fired power stations in the Philippines. Speaking in Bangkok last week, at a regional Conference of Caritas Asia which reflected on Laudato Si', Philippine Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle said that, "to pollute or destroy the environment is the result of a lack of respect towards creation, people, and the environment that is God's gift".

A parish in Thailand planted 800 trees to mark the first anniversary. "Pope Francis has enlightened us and appealed to us in his encyclical Laudato Si' for collective action and a bold cultural revolution to tackle environmental issues," said Fr Daniel Khuan Thinwan of Paphanawan parish in the Diocese of Thare and Nonseng.

The Global Catholic Climate Movement has tracked more than 1,000 similar initiatives around the world. Yet, some Church responses have been more structural. In Asia, the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences, for example, has now established a climate change desk, with dedicated staff looking at this issue and strategising for an adequate Church response. They see the urgency. A city in India's Rajasthan state recently broke the country's temperature records after registering 51C, the highest since records began. This is 123.8 degrees Fahrenheit! Hundreds are dying in the heatwave.

Columban eco-theologian Fr Sean McDonagh, an advisor to Laudato Si', has urged that we "don't let this Laudato Si' moment pass". He calls for a three-year synodal process aimed at taking the new teaching, "a new spirituality" that Francis offers in Laudato Si' and finding ways to put it into practice of the faith. The first year of the synod would start at local parishes and dioceses, and ask people how they come to know the natural world, experience it and see their proper place within it. Year two would shift to the national level, examining practices in each country, from energy usage to consumption to treatment of the oceans. In that process, he said, the Church "would start to begin creating prayers and liturgies that support this new engagement and new spirituality and new ethics with creation". The third year would take those efforts internationally, building on, for example, such experience as Church lobbying for an agreement at the Paris Climate Conference last November.

"This is potentially an extraordinary moment for the church," Sean McDonagh says. He would like to see the Catholic Church giving leadership on ecological issues, and particularly the theological side of things. His new book, 'On Care for Our Common Home, Laudato Si' joins the full text of Laudato Si' with his reflections. Aside from reviewing the history of Catholic teaching and the environment, he elaborates on several of the specific themes in the encyclical--climate change, biodiversity, water scarcity, the threats to the ocean, and the crisis of food. He concludes with prescriptions about what must be done to turn the pope's vision into a program of effective action. Each of us has a role to play.

In his review of the book theologian Donal Dorr writes: "The text of the encyclical is a major contribution to Catholic teaching; and the commentary will help readers to appreciate the importance of the encyclical and the urgent need for Christians and others to commit themselves to acting on its recommendations."

For more information see:

On Care for Our Common Home, Laudato Si' by Sean McDonagh www.orbisbooks.com/on-care-for-our-common-home-laudato-si.html