Columbans celebrate Laudato Si' Tenth Anniversary
I can remember the first time I Read Laudato Si' in May 2015. I was so excited and I marked so many sections for useful quotes that the copy had highlights on nearly every page. I have referred to the document many times since. Laudato Si' named something for us that we have often felt but not had the approved Catholic language to express - a deep solidarity with all God's Creation.
And I was honoured to be able to thank Pope Francis personally. I was attending a papal audience in St Peter's Square in September 2018 when he passed by really close to me. I put down my camera and shouted out "Laudato Si.'" He turned to me and I shouted "thank you" and gave a thumbs up. He smiled and seemed very pleased for the acknowledgement.
Before Pope Francis died on Easter Monday, I had been preparing a special issue of the Columban newsletter Vocation for Justice. It marks the 10th anniversary of publication of Pope Francis' groundbreaking encyclical Laudato Si' - On Care for our Common Home, which examines Catholic environmental teaching in the light of today's planetary crisis. A link is given at the end.
Our cover illustration, 'Love God's World' is by Arianna Boardman of the Loreto School in Altrincham and it was the winning image in our 2025 Columban Schools Competition on the theme 'Jubilee: Pilgrims of Hope'. Arianna was inspired by Pope Francis urging Catholics to be "sowers of hope." She drew "bubbles containing different problems of the environment with people coming together to solve the problems". Environment campaigners are holding hands around and trying to protect small tropical islands, melting ice and a polar bear, and wildlife. Issues addressed include fossil fuel and plastic pollution, extractive industries and the destruction of war. At the centre, wording, "Love God's World" and "Laudato Si Movement," surround a globe.
Environmental awakening for me predates 2015. Forty years ago Columban Sean McDonagh first book, 'To Care for the Earth', influenced CAFOD'S 'Renewing the Earth' education campaign launched in 1986. As CAFOD'S campaign coordinator, I facilitated Sean giving talks and workshops to CAFOD and Justice and Peace supporters throughout the 1980s. He shared his experience of rainforest and biodiversity loss in the Philippines and
the insights of Passionist eco-theologian Fr Thomas Berry. Sean linked social justice and care for creation and went on to be a consultor for the production of Laudato Si'.
Myself and Australian Columban Fr Charles Rue were at an early meeting of the Global Catholic Climate Movement held during the Paris climate talks in 2015. Amy Echeverria, the Central Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation coordinator for Columbans, was the Founding President of that Movement. Columban Filipino Lay Missionary John Din helped the Catholic Bishops in the Philippines to launch its national Laudato Si' Program. All these colleagues have contributed to this Vocation for Justice issue, and also Lorna Gold, the executive director of the Laudato Si Movement.
Pope Francis produced a follow up document Laudate Deum in 2023. He warned that responses to concerns raised in Laudato Si' were "not adequate." It was significant that he now used the term 'global climate crisis' rather than 'climate change', responding to climate change sceptics/deniers, including those inside the Church. Francis highlighted that the speed of accelerated warming means it is happening within only one generation, not centuries or millennia. Unfortunately, that one generation is ours!
And he defended climate protesters, saying, "the actions of groups negatively portrayed as 'radicalised', are in reality filling a space left empty by society as a whole, which ought to exercise a healthy 'pressure' since every family ought to realise that the future of their children is at stake."
Of course, the legacy of Pope Francis is also about the Church opening up to the world - and that includes ecumenical and interfaith collaboration - and compassion for migrants and the poor. But the message of ecological conversion and the need to hear, 'the Cry of Earth and the Cry of the Poor' is so essential to our times.
Sadly, the scope of Laudato Si' still isn't on the radar of most Catholic parishes. Perhaps involvement in Laudato Si' Week and Autumn's Season of Creation could help change that. Pope Francis said in Laudate Deum, "we must move beyond the mentality of appearing to be concerned but not having the courage needed to produce substantial changes." Yes indeed!
LINKS
Vocation for Justice: A Tribute to Pope Francis' Laudato Si encyclical . Available for download.
Laudato Si Week: https://laudatosiweek.org/
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