Join Catholic communities from all around the world from 16-25 May to help continue the call that Pope Francis made six years ago in his encyclical Laudato Si’ – ‘Care for our Common Home’ when he asked everyone living on this planet to listen to the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor and move towards an ecological conversion.

What can we do during this week?

1. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle – Boroondara Council’s A-Z guide to Food Organics and Garden Organics, recycling and waste, explore ways to reduce, reuse and recycle here.
2. Save money and use less energy through the State initiative – Victorian Energy upgrades. More information what you can do and details of accredited providers is here.
3. Register with the Global Catholic Climate Movement who are organizing Global information sessions over the week and hosting webinars you may participate in.

See the entire Laudato Si’ Week schedule, and register to receive recordings from the world-changing program.

The week will feature dialogues on the issues that matter the most, we’ll hear from the leading Catholic experts around the world and topics include:

• Learn about practical ways your community can create change ahead of the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) and the 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26). Fr. Augusto Zampini, one of the Vatican’s leading experts on Laudato Si’, and Christine Allen, the director of the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD), will help show us how.
• Hear how Catholic institutions around the world can better care for our common home through divesting.
  • His Eminence Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, President of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE), and Bill McKibben, New York Times best-selling author and co-founder of 350.org, will share their expertise.
• What’s an ecological conversion look like? We’ll hear powerful testimonials from religious leaders around the world, including in countries that have been devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic, such as India, the U.S.A., and the Philippines.
  • Sister Sheila Kinsey of the Franciscan Sisters Daughters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary will light our path.
• Safe water for all: His Eminence Cardinal Peter K.A. Turkson, Prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, will offer witness to how the global Church is providing access to safe drinking water for the least among us.
• Unite around the theme, “For we know things can change”. Let’s keep changing the world.

Laudato Si’ Week 2021 will also be a time to reflect on what the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us and prepare for the future with hope.

By Julie Douglas – CBD Environment and Sustainability Committee