Laudato Si’ Week 2023 runs from Sunday, 21 – 28 May and this year the theme is “Hope for the Earth, Hope for Humanity.”
In the past week it has been widely reported that we will reach the critical tipping point of 1.5⁰C increase in temperature within 5 years. This is a cause for real concern and could easily leave us feeling hopeless and helpless to make any impact on the damage being done to our common home and those with whom we share it. A wake-up call on this scale demands a response from every person on the planet and makes the theme of this year’s Laudato Si’ Week more important than ever. We are all interconnected and interdependent, and what we do to the earth, we do to ourselves.
The Laudato Si’ Action Platform offers these thoughts on its website:
As part of Laudato Si’ Week 2023, participants are encouraged to reflect on their own environmental impact and take steps to reduce their carbon footprint. This could include using public transportation instead of driving, eating a plant-based diet, or reducing energy consumption in their homes.
Laudato Si’ Week is also a time to advocate for environmental policies that promote sustainability and protect the planet. By working together, we can create a more just and sustainable world for ourselves and future generations.
Laudato Si’ Week 2023 is a time of reflection, action, and advocacy, in which we reaffirm our dedication to caring for our common home and creating a more just and sustainable world. Let us take this opportunity to make a difference and renew our commitment to preserving our planet for generations to come.
The Laudato Si’ Encyclical is built upon the principles of See, Judge, Act and we can see their influence in the passage above. What is so important about them is that are accessible to every single person; each of us can respond to them in some way.
We can reflect on our own behaviour and the changes we can make, however small. Are we wasting food? How are we nurturing biodiversity and allowing nature to flourish in our gardens?
We can advocate and demand that our civic, political and religious leaders make the ecological crisis their priority. Do we have an ecology project in our parish? Can we lobby our Council for more recycling facilities? Even those who are housebound or invalided can sign petitions and write letters.
And we can act, regardless of how small or insignificant our actions may seem. Be in no doubt that everything thing we do to not do more damage makes things better, whether we can see its impact or not.
So why not choose, during this Laudato Si week, to strengthen our resolve and our commitment, to struggle for climate justice, and to care authentically for creation?
To quote the anthropologist Margaret Mead, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
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