What this Laudato Si' week can mean in today’s world

We remember the days when we prayed ‘for the Holy Father’s intentions’. Of course, he still needs our prayers. But he also needs our appreciation and understanding of his intentions – and our acting on this.

Laudato Si’ Week 2021, to be held May 16-25, will be the crowning event of the Special Laudato Si’ Anniversary Year, and a celebration of the great progress the whole Church has made on its journey to ecological conversion.

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.

What does 'Laudato Si'' mean to you? Do you recognise it as the name given to Pope Francis' Encyclical letter back in 2015? Papal Encyclicals come and go and are soon forgotten. But this one was different. I think I'm right in saying that it has outsold every encyclical that has ever been produced. And that probably doesn't include those who accessed it on the internet.

So, 'Laudato Si', or 'On Care of Our Common Home', has become a landmark Encyclical, a game changer. And on the fifth anniversary of its publication, a year of celebration was instigated from May 2020 to May 2021, which ends, now, with a final Laudato Si' Week 16-25 May.

The week long event will celebrate the great progress the global Church has made in its ecological conversion journey during the past six years and offer a clear road map for the decade ahead. We know that much remains to be done, but we rejoice and celebrate the steps we have taken so far, and we look to the future with hope.

Why should we celebrate? I think the answer is because it has been taken so seriously, and not just by theologians and academics, but by people all over the world. It is a plea that we care for our common home. So Laudato Si' week is an opportunity for us to remind ourselves of what Pope Francis says in the Encyclical, and of the commitment asked for, which is to a personal ecological conversion.

Brian Austin is a Laudato Si' Animator