By Katie Mahon, Communications Manager
This week’s “Embracing Faith” article will focus on Embracing Faith through Inspiration.
“But you, take courage! Do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded.”
-Chronicles 15:7
Thursday, April 7th, marks World Health Day, an annual observance that raises awareness about the “urgent actions needed to keep humans and the planet healthy and foster a movement to create societies focused on well-being.” (1)
Each year, it is estimated by the World Health Organization that there are over 13 million deaths due to avoidable environmental causes, including the climate crisis. (1)
For Women Religious and the Sisters of Saint Dominic of Blauvelt, New York, they have taken an active role in addressing these issues through their inspiring advocacy of the Laudato Si’ Action Platform.
The Laudato Si’ Action Platform, which Blauvelt Dominican Associate Ellen Nash described as “a seven-year process with seven goals that provide a vision for a new and better world and a way forward.” (2)
Ellen, a Blauvelt Social Justice Committee member, went on to add, “Think of these goals as being connected, not individual.” (2)
The goals of the Laudato Si’ Action Platform include:
·Response to the Cry of the Earth is a call to protect our common home for the wellbeing of all as we equitably address the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, and ecological sustainability.
·Response to the Cry of the Poor is a call to promote eco-justice, aware that we are called to defend humans and all forms of life on Earth.
·Ecological Economics acknowledges that the economy is a sub-system of human society, which itself is embedded within the biosphere–our common home.
·Adoption of a Simple Lifestyle is grounded in the idea of sufficiency and promoting sobriety in the use of resources and energy.
·Ecological Education is about re-thinking and re-designing curricular and institutional reform in the spirit of integral ecology in order to foster ecological awareness and transformative action.
·Ecological Spirituality recovers a religious vision of God’s creation and encourages greater contact with the natural world in a spirit of wonder, praise, joy, and gratitude.
·Community Engagement and Participatory Action encourages the development of cultures and policies that protect our common home and all who share it.
Upon further reflecting on the Laudato Si’ Action Platform, its goals, and its connections to our health, Ellen shared, “We’ve been gifted with an opportunity to see so much of what we have valued and worked for over the years, being promoted now by the Vatican in the global church. This will make it easier to promote our concerns for racial, economic, social, and environmental justice.” (2)
To learn more about the Laudato Si’ Action Platform, click here.
Comments