Laudato Si' Week 2022: Church action to Care for Creation

Campaigners in Glasgow during COP26

Next Sunday, 22 May, Pope Francis will inaugurate Laudato Si' Week 2022 at the Angelus Prayer from St Peter's Square in Rome. The week, to be held May 22-29, will mark the seventh anniversary of Pope Francis' landmark encyclical on creation care.

Pope Francis has invited Catholics - and anyone else interested - to join a seven-year journey to widen the reach of his 2015 encyclical on the environment. The Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development's Laudato Si' Action Platform is the initiative offering opportunities for parishes, schools, Catholic organisations, communities, and families to learn and grow together towards sustainability and creation-centred spirituality.

It is ably supported by the Laudato Si' Movement, which has come a long way since it was founded in the year the encyclical was published. I well remember a meeting at the Paris Climate talks in December 2015 where the nascent movement gathered together some of the Catholic groups in Paris who were lobbying the UN Climate meeting for action to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees celsius.

What an inspiring gathering it was, and the beginning of a galvanising of Catholic support for care of God's creation. Columban Missionaries and Westminster J&P sat alongside Caritas Internationalis, CIDSE, Trocaire, Jesuit European Social Centre, Ecojesuit, Franciscans International, Augustinian Recollects - Philippines, and Chrétiens Unis pour la Terre. There were Franciscans from India, Australia, Brazil, Netherlands and Rome, and Jesuits from Philippines, Belgium and Spain; also Capuchin JPIC from the US and Ecuador, and an Assumption priest. Ghanaian Archbishop Gabriel Justice Yaw Anokye of Kumasi, the President of Caritas Africa and the second vice-president of Caritas Internationalis, opened with a prayer and thanked God for the opportunity to be at COP21 and asked for God's help "for us to develop our strategy to protect Earth for future generations".

Since then, the ecumenical Season of Creation - 1 September to 4 October - has been taken on by Catholic networks, and Laudato Si' Week is being celebrated by Catholics globally. Catholics had a very visible presence at the lobby of the United Nations' COP26 climate talks in Glasgow last November. Highly effective use is made of social media and other programmes, such as the Laudato Si' Animators

The invitation to celebrate Laudato Si' Week comes as India and Pakistan have experienced roasting temperatures and Australia unprecedented floods this year. Pope Francis has called for a "new ecological approach that can transform our way of dwelling in the world, our lifestyles, our relationship with the resources of Earth and, in general, our way of looking at humanity and of living life."

Already, more than 4,000 church organisations and bodies - including the Columbans, Jesuits and the Salesian Sisters, the Pontifical Gregorian University and 80 Catholic colleges worldwide, the Philippines Bishops' Conference and upwards of 1,000 families - have committed to the Laudato Si' Action Platform. Planting trees, reducing energy use, divesting from fossil fuels and educational gatherings are amongst the initiatives to be celebrated worldwide in Laudato Si' Week.

International events, available online, include the opening of Laudato Si' Week on 22 May by Pope Francis, a 'No More Biodiversity Collapse' webinar on the morning of 23 May and a focus on 'Fossil Fuels, Violence, and the Climate Crisis' on 25 May. An all-day prayer event on 29 May takes the theme, 'Community resilience and empowerment as part of our Synodal Journey.' In the Philippines, Manila Cathedral will host an all-day programme on 24 May. The Jesuit Centre for Ecology in Malawi is hosting a week-long programme.

Here in Britain, Hexham and Newcastle Diocese is holding a Mass at St Mary's Cathedral at 7pm on Monday 23 May. Bishop Robert Byrne will celebrate the Mass and Fr Chris Hughes will give the Homily on 'Hearing the Cry of the Poor and the Earth'.

On-going initiatives in England and Wales include CAFOD's Livesimply Award and the 'Guardians of Creation' project which has released guidelines to help Catholic dioceses measure a baseline carbon footprint in an effort to achieve 'net zero'.

LINKS

The full document can be viewed here: www.cbcew.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/11/Nov21-Carbon-Accounting.pdf

Livesimply Award - https://cafod.org.uk/Campaign/LiveSimply-award

Laudato Si' Week - www.laudatosiweek.org

Laudato Si' Week Celebration Guide: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tZPl3m0NHV7EzfC8O19EjDdlntY1jEYh/view

NEXT MONDAY! - Dr Vandana Shiva will be speaking at the Laudato Si' Week webinar 'No More Biodiversity Collapse'. Register at: http://laudatosiweek.org