VATICAN CITY — To help lead the world’s Catholics along a journey of intensified action in caring for creation, Pope Francis asked everyone to join a new global grassroots movement to create a more inclusive, fraternal, peaceful and sustainable world.
The new initiative, the Laudato Si’ Action Platform, is “a seven-year journey that will see our communities committed in different ways to becoming totally sustainable, in the spirit of integral ecology,” the pope said in a video message released May 25.
“We need a new ecological approach that can transform our way of dwelling in the world, our lifestyles, our relationship with the resources of the Earth and, in general, our way of looking at humanity and of living life,” he said.
This can only come about by everyone working together in a coordinated effort, he said. “Only in this way will we be able to create the future we want: a more inclusive, fraternal, peaceful and sustainable world.”
The pope’s message was released on the last day of Laudato Si’ Week — the “crowning event” of a special Laudato Si’ Anniversary Year, which closed May 24.
But the end of anniversary celebrations of Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical, “Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home,” ushered in a new wave of initiatives including a new website in nine languages at laudatosi.va and an action platform at laudatosiplatform.org as part of a “road map” of action for the next decade.
The platform is meant to help those who want to increase their commitment to bringing “Laudato Si’” to life by promising a set of actions over a period of seven years.
Integral ecology requires every member of the wider Church to contribute their skills and work together on common goals, which is why the platform specifical-