This Laudato Si’ Week, 16-24 May, the Jesuit Forum for Social Faith and Justice in Canada is inviting Catholics to also make time to listen to each other.

La Universidad Francisco de Vitoria in Madrid will bring Spaniards together during Laudato Si’ Week with an online conference that will focus on the encyclical’s unifying message of caring for creation.

Sandra Iheanacho, a CAFOD volunteer from Westminster diocese, recently travelled to Fatima, Portugal to attend a sustainability camp inspired by Laudato Si’. There she saw Laudato Si’ brought to life and here she talks about her experiences and how every community can get involved.

In disruptive times such as these, that which was already unsustainable is weakened to the point of breaking. We are witnessing minor collapses all over, exposing the frailty and inequalities of the systems we had in place. This crisis exposes “our vulnerability and uncovers those false and superfluous certainties around which we have constructed our daily schedules”.

But the most important thing about these experiences is not the action itself, but the commitment that each one of us is assuming in our role as active Christians in society and in relation to caring for the planet, centering our life on the love of God and Creation. For me this is one of the most beautiful messages the Encyclical offers us.

“Laudato Sí” calls us not to be impassive but to be protagonists of a change in our lifestyle, an ecological conversion in which we take care of the Planet and people. A conversion that must begin inside us, recognizing that it is we must sow, care for, start … and then give the best of ourselves to others.

To honor Laudato Si’ Week, the Socio-environmental Commission of the Diocese of São José dos Campos in Brazil will host a pair of online conferences in partnership with Global Catholic Climate Movement.

Agnes Richard, like everyone these days, has moments where she feels sad and scared as the COVID-19 pandemic changes all of our lives. But what keeps the coordinator of Canada’s Global Catholic Climate Movement chapter motivated and hopeful is finding ways to connect with others.

Catholic Climate Covenant is leading individuals, small groups, and parishes across the United States to reflect on Laudato Si’ during Laudato Si’ Week. In the country with the world’s greatest number of coronavirus cases, Catholics are uniting to build something better together.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has long encouraged Catholics in the United States to protect creation. USCCB resources deepen the Catholic family’s understanding of integral ecology, the understanding that “everything is connected.”