Laudato si' Week recalls encyclical's sixth anniversary

Vatican City, May 20, 2021 / 11:29 am

The Vatican is observing Laudato si’ Week to mark the sixth anniversary of Pope Francis’ encyclical on care for our common home. The week includes an online climate summit.

 “The Laudato si’ action platform will be launched at the end of this week that offers the Church and all religious bodies a huge range of activities that they can join in order to move further away from fossil fuels,” Lindlyn Moma, Director of Advocacy for the Global Catholic Climate Movement, said during day three of the summit.

Father Augusto Zampini, adjunct secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, is overseeing the May 16-25 Laudato si’ Week.

Fr. Zampini told Crux May 17 he hopes the Laudato si’ action plan will create “a massive movement” of organizations throughout society and the Church. 

“The idea is that everyone commits to the seven Laudato Si resolutions, which are easy,” he said.

A conversation during the summit’s third day, Laudato Si Dialogue on Energy and Fossil Fuels: Global Catholic Divestment Drumbeat, featured six panelists discussing fossil fuels and plans for reduction in their use.

Day three of the summit brought in 1,100 views on YouTube and nearly 240 on Facebook. The previous day, the summit attracted 3,000 viewers on YouTube and 500 on Facebook. On the first day, the summit brought 4,000 views on YouTube, and almost 560 on Facebook.  

The summit will continue to feature discussions of the pope’s call for ecological responsibility in the face of climate change. 

Laudato si’ Week is the conclusion of a year-long observance of the fifth anniversary of the encyclical. The year has included numerous activities to encourage the others.

In June 2020 the Vatican encouraged Catholics to put their faith into action to promote integral ecology and care of creation with the release of a 200-page document. 

The introduction of On the Journey for Care of the Common Home said, “the intention is to offer an orientation to the action of Catholics (but not only) in the secular dimension and to ask every Christian to examine their own behavior, also in everyday life…”

During the launch of the Laudato si’ year in May 2020, the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development commented that five years from Pope Francis’ signing of the document, the “encyclical appears ever more relevant.”

“We hope that the anniversary year and the ensuing decade will indeed be a time of grace, a true Kairos experience and ‘Jubilee’ time for the Earth, and for humanity, and for all God’s creatures,” the dicastery said at the time.