Vatican launches ‘action plan’ to promote Laudato Si’
May 25, 2021
The Vatican has unveiled a 7-year “action platform” to generate environmental action, as suggested by the encyclical Laudato Si’.
The “action program” was announced by dicastery for Integral Human Development on May 25, as the Vatican concluded a year devoted to the encyclical, which was published by Pope Francis in 2015.
Pope Francis, who has strongly urged concrete action to support his encyclical, said that such initiatives are needed in the face of “an ecological crisis without precedent.” In a statement welcoming the Laudato Si’ Action Platform (LSAP), he said that the earth “that hosts us suffers as a result of wounds that we cause by our predatory attitude.”
The LSAP, the Pope said, “will see our communities committed in different ways to becoming totally sustainable, in the spirit of integral ecology.” He said that “we need a new ecological approach, that can transform our way of dwelling in the world.”
At a press conference announcing the 7-year plan, Cardinal Peter Turkson, the prefect of the dicastery for Integral Human Development, cited examples of concrete actions that could promote a health environment. He pointed to the planting of trees in Bangladesh and on the outskirts of the southern Sahara.
The action program dedicates each year to a specific form of environmental action, encouraging Catholic institutions to join in the effort. Although the effort is billed as “concrete action,” the specific tasks mentioned for each year are more abstract. Thus for example the first year is devoted to “the three fundamental tasks of community building, resource sharing, and drawing up of concrete action plans.”
In his statement supporting the initiative, Pope Francis claimed that “the current pandemic has now brought to light in an even stronger way the cry of nature and that of the poor who suffer most the consequences.”
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Further information:
- Press Conference for the conclusion of the special Year of the fifth anniversary of Laudato si’ (Vatican press office)
- Cardinal Turkson launches Laudato si' Action Platform (Vatican News)
- Pope on Laudato si' Platform: 'What world will we leave our children?' (Vatican News)
- Video Message of the Holy Father on the occasion of the launch of the Laudato si’ Action Platform (Vatican press office)
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