When Pope Francis issued Laudato Si’ in 2015, he wasn’t somehow breaking with the past and propelling believers into a novel ecological direction. Instead, he was synthesizing a long tradition of Catholic understanding of creation and of humanity’s moral obligations on behalf of the common good.
This guidebook offers diocesan ecumenical and interreligious officers, pastors, parish groups, and the faithful at large a number of theological and practical resources to put the counsels of Pope Francis and Catholic magisterial voices, along with selected interfaith voices, into practical action.
Biblical and Traditional resources are cited as foundational to Catholicism’s beliefs about the things of this world, personal moral counsels, and long-standing social teaching. The guidebook offers questions which can serve as a kind of examen for personal, familial, parish, diocesan, and civic consideration. It also proposes models for ecumenical and interreligious dialogue and twenty-five possible topics. The guidebook includes citations of papal and episcopal statements, quotable quotes, liturgical resources, a calendar of observances of saints’ days and seasons, and online and print media materials for ready reference.
This guidebook has been prepared with a sense of urgency about the health of planet Earth and the well-being of its peoples, particularly the most vulnerable. As St. John Paul II remarked in his Message for the 1990 World Day of Peace,“Respect for life and for the dignity of the human person extends also to the rest of creation, which is called to join man in praising God” (16, citing Psalm 148:96).