For Laudato Si’ Week, 16-24 May, Catholics united in solidarity for a more just and sustainable future. In learning about Laudato Si’, the students at St Patrick’s have been discussing the ways in which we can do our part here at school and in the community. 

This year marks the fifth anniversary of Pope Francis’s encyclical about care for our common home, or Laudato Si’. It is appropriate to be thinking about this now as the Pope renews his call for us to answer “the cry of the poor and the cry of the Earth”. They are often intertwined.  

The theme for the year’s week was “Everything is Connected”. Catholics and Christians from all over the world came together as one to prayerfully discern the lessons of the moment, especially in the current climate with COVID-19.  

Laudato Si’ prompts us to reflect more deeply on Creator and creation. Its vision of integral ecology, which sees the connections between how we treat God, nature and each other, offers simple but profound truths about the bonds that unite us. 

The website draws the parallel between the current health crisis and the current ecological crisis. “Both are global emergencies that will affect many people, both directly and indirectly; both are experienced most deeply by the poor and vulnerable; both expose the deep injustices in our societies; and both will be solved only through a united effort that calls on the best of the values we share.”  

We will follow last week’s event with a month-long celebration in September during the Season of Creation. Working on our stewardship ties in nicely with the Stage 3 outcomes for Religion this term and also the students’ project as part of St Patrick’s Seven Acts of Mercy. 

 

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