Committing the Catholic Church in all its forms to a seven-year campaign to care for God’s Creation, Pope Francis fully recognizes the many facets of the challenge before us, and his support team in the Vatican has outlined the different ways we can take action to meet that challenge. There is no doubt that each and all of us can contribute in response to one or more of the imperatives that the Pope has laid out. The Laudato Si’ Action Platform’s goals come directly from the Pope’s encyclical, urging us to:
The question is “What plans will we, the people of Saint Luke Catholic Church, conceive and carry out, addressing these goals, and doing our part to achieve the Laudato Si’ Action Platform over the next seven years?”
- Respond to the Cry of the Earth, addressing the direct causes of the climate crisis by limiting greenhouse-gas emissions through less pollution and adoption of non-fossil energy alternatives, supporting biodiversity, healthy oceans, and preservation and restoration of natural environments.
- Respond to the Cry of the Poor, increasing our awareness of the dramatic global and local disparities in access to resources and economic well-being that threaten the health and lives of billions of our fellow humans, noting that the climate crisis is worst for those most vulnerable and least responsible for the human contributions to causing it.
- Embrace Ecological Economics, finding ways toward longer product lives, greater reuse and recycling of material resources, and working toward a circular economy, one freed from the myth that ever-expanding material production and consumption can be maintained from the fixed resources of our already heavily-exploited planet.
- Adopt Sustainable Lifestyles, improving the energy efficiency of our buildings, vehicles, and practices, reducing food waste, guarding soil health, husbanding fresh water, and increasing our awareness of the environmental consequences of our individual and family choices.
- Spread Ecological Education, learning and teaching each other the truths of our relationship to God’s creation, the harm we can do to it, the good we can do in protecting and restoring it, and its immeasurable value to our lives.
- Adopt Ecological Spirituality, recognizing that every interaction with God’s creation is an interaction with God, with His plan for our lives, and with His love poured out for us in our tangible, vital daily reality, offering new chances for gratitude, prayer, and worship.
- Engage Together as a Community, discerning, planning, and acting to create the framework of policy, culture, and practices that will motivate each of us to participate to serve God and each other by preserving His wonderful, bountiful, beautiful creation.
The question is “What plans will we, the people of Saint Luke Catholic Church, conceive and carry out, addressing these goals, and doing our part to achieve the Laudato Si’ Action Platform over the next seven years?”