Laudato Si Action Platform

St. James Catholic Church on the South Side of Chicago takes walking seriously, much like the pilgrims devoted to its patron saint. And while a new Laudato Si’-inspired labyrinth the parish is planning won’t be nearly as long as the famed Camino de Santiago, it can still be a source of spiritual sustenance, parish leaders said. 

“We want it to be a place where people can come and experience grace,” said Amy Pellettiere, the Vitality Coordinator at St. James, “even amidst all of the noise and busyness of the city.”

 Putting our faith in action for our Common Home  

“What can I do?” This is the question we at Catholic Climate Covenant hear most often from supporters – U.S. Catholics worried about climate change.  

For more than 90 years, the Washington Retreat House has offered citizens of the capital a respite from the city’s clanging political culture, a few quiet acres set aside for “refreshment for the soul and rest of the body,” in the words of its founder, Mother Lurana White.

In fall of 2021, the California Conference of Catholic Bishops made the exciting decision to participate in the Laudato Si’ Action Platform, sending a clear message about the importance of creation care that surely came as cause for celebration for the many Catholics across the state who have long been working to protect our common home and its most vulnerable members.

Once upon a time, Kaeley Einheuser would have been the last person to approach a beehive.  

But then St. Joseph’s Academy in St. Augustine, Florida, where Einheuser is a senior, hosted a local beekeeper during Earth Week last year.  

After learning about the big role tiny bees play as pollinators in the Earth’s ecosystem, she became an ardent, um, bee-liever.  

Recently I stood pondering Laudato Si’ and the daily choices we must make to care for our common home in the middle of a grocery aisle – or a few aisles actually.

I was attending a small gathering of friends and agreed to bring the beverages. My immediate thought was to go to the nearby grocery store and quickly buy something. But there were a vast number of options, and most were packaged in different sizes of plastic – liter bottles, quart bottles, individual bottles ... etc… so I moved on from the plastic aisle.

Nobody likes to count the pounds around Thanksgiving, but at St. Pius X and St. Mary of the Assumption Pastorate in Baltimore, Maryland, it can actually be inspiring. 

Volunteers in the pastorate’s Giving Garden ministry harvested and delivered 1,150 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables to a local food bank in 2021, thanks in part to a grant from Catholic Climate Covenant. Their 2021 harvest was nearly double that of 2019 -- talk about your green thumbs!   

Catholic Climate Covenant plays a key role in leading its development

Today in Rome, the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development launched the much awaited enrollment phase of the Laudato Si’ Action Platform. 

The 2021 program “Eco-Conversion: Called to Tend to a Flourishing Garden of Life" contains prayers, readings, reflection/discussion questions, a short video, and suggested activities.