“Teach us to discover the worth of each thing, to be filled with awe and contemplation, to recognize that we are profoundly united with every creature as we journey towards your infinite light.” (LS 246)
Six years ago Pope Francis issued his first major encyclical, Laudato Si’, calling for all of us to care for God’s creation and thereby each other on a global basis, eliminating waste and reckless damage to the environment, and restoring health and life where greed and short-sightedness have squandered or ruined God’s most precious gifts to us and endanger the most vulnerable among us.
Last month, Pope Francis put before the church a seven-year campaign – the Laudato Si’ Action Platform – intended to convert those concerns and moral imperatives into deliberate remedial and positive actions. We are called to undergo an “ecological conversion,” to reflect together, plan together, and act together through our groups at all levels – our families, schools, our institutions and enterprises, and of course through our dioceses and parishes.
The Action Platform is described on the Vatican website (https://laudatosiactionplatform.org) as “a unique collaboration between the Vatican, an international coalition of Catholic organizations, and ‘all men and women of good will.’” And indeed it may be unique in its length, its scope, its focus on meaningful actions, and its intent to involve the whole Church in all its organizations and people.
Saint Luke and other parishes are asked to make their own community commitments to the Action Platform by submitting to its Franciscan secretariat their specific plans that align with the Pope’s goals, ready to undertake them starting on October 4th.
What should our parish community consider and plan to do our part, responding to the Holy Father’s call for all Catholics to demonstrate their care for God’s creation? The Care for Creation Committee will be thinking and discussing possible parish actions.
Next week we’ll summarize the Pope’s ambitious stated goals for this major effort. During the summer we’ll suggest possible projects and ideas to undertake at St. Luke’s, and we invite you to join us with your ideas and your participation as we create a plan and exercise our obligation to care for God’s creation and all of us who share it, led by the Holy Father.
Six years ago Pope Francis issued his first major encyclical, Laudato Si’, calling for all of us to care for God’s creation and thereby each other on a global basis, eliminating waste and reckless damage to the environment, and restoring health and life where greed and short-sightedness have squandered or ruined God’s most precious gifts to us and endanger the most vulnerable among us.
Last month, Pope Francis put before the church a seven-year campaign – the Laudato Si’ Action Platform – intended to convert those concerns and moral imperatives into deliberate remedial and positive actions. We are called to undergo an “ecological conversion,” to reflect together, plan together, and act together through our groups at all levels – our families, schools, our institutions and enterprises, and of course through our dioceses and parishes.
The Action Platform is described on the Vatican website (https://laudatosiactionplatform.org) as “a unique collaboration between the Vatican, an international coalition of Catholic organizations, and ‘all men and women of good will.’” And indeed it may be unique in its length, its scope, its focus on meaningful actions, and its intent to involve the whole Church in all its organizations and people.
Saint Luke and other parishes are asked to make their own community commitments to the Action Platform by submitting to its Franciscan secretariat their specific plans that align with the Pope’s goals, ready to undertake them starting on October 4th.
What should our parish community consider and plan to do our part, responding to the Holy Father’s call for all Catholics to demonstrate their care for God’s creation? The Care for Creation Committee will be thinking and discussing possible parish actions.
Next week we’ll summarize the Pope’s ambitious stated goals for this major effort. During the summer we’ll suggest possible projects and ideas to undertake at St. Luke’s, and we invite you to join us with your ideas and your participation as we create a plan and exercise our obligation to care for God’s creation and all of us who share it, led by the Holy Father.