Laudato Si Movement

The Laudato Si Movement (founded as Global Catholic Climate Movement 2015) is a community  of Catholics, responding to the Pope’s call to action in the Laudato Si’ encyclical. We are lay people, priests, religious, bishops and a global network of member organizations working together on the climate change crisis.

The Laudato Si Movement (LSM) is united by  Catholic faith and by the moral imperative of responding to and raising awareness about climate change.

"We actively encourage the renewal of our relationship with God’s creation, for current and future generations. The LSM is led by a Steering Committee that is made up of active founding members who decide on the general direction of the LSM, its global guidelines, educational and campaign activities. Steering Committee members steer through a biweekly call. And our initiatives our scaled throughout the world through our global network of partners."  Given the climate crisis is so complex and profound,  the Laudato Si Movement structure their work in the following  dimensions:

1. SPIRITUAL DIMENSION:

“We must therefore encourage and support the ‘ecological conversion’ which in recent decades has made humanity more sensitive to the catastrophe to which it has been heading.” (St John Paul II)

2. LIFESTYLES DIMENSION:

“Humanity is called to recognize the need for changes of lifestyle, production and consumption, in order to combat this warming.” (Pope Francis, LS 23)

3. MOBILIZATION & ADVOCACY DIMENSION:

“The Church has a responsibility towards creation and she must assert this responsibility in the public sphere… She must above all protect mankind from self-destruction.” (Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate 51).

OBJECTIVES

• To raise awareness within the Church about the urgency of climate action in light of Catholic social and environmental teachings

• To support global solidarity on the current ecological crisis and to restore our relationship with all species

• To advocate with our brothers and sisters in poverty who are on the frontline in bearing the brunt of the effects of climate change

• To promote ecological conversion through personal and organisational change to reduce our emissions and transition to a low carbon world

• To advance the Catholic relationship between faith and reason, especially as it relates to adaptive decision making in areas of climate change policy

• To urge political, business and social leaders to commit to ambitious climate action to solve this urgent crisis and keep the global temperature increase below 1.5 degree Celsius (relative to pre-industrial levels)

INITIATIVES TO ADVANCE OUR OBJECTIVES

• Praying and Fasting in solidarity with those who are most affected by the changing global climate
• Educating about the climate crisis and how it impacts all peoples and species, the Church’s social and environmental teachings, and how to reduce our carbon footprint
• Advocating for the world’s policy makers and all Catholics to act in ways appropriate to their spheres of influence to protect the common good through mitigation and adaptation policies which promote social and environmental resilience to climate change
• Mobilizing Catholics on an individual, community and regional level, at scale ahead of the 2015 Paris COP 21 – alongwith the global climate movement
•  Sharing Catholic actions, best practices and case studies on climate change
• Promoting interfaith dialogue and action on climate change and with all people of good will

The GCCM  operate as a sponsored project of the Franciscan Action Network, a 501(c) 3 nonprofit organization based in the United States, Federal Tax ID# 26-2015539.