‘Protection of the environment and commitment to justice and peace are more urgent now than ever. They should be a preferential option for the Church and for OLA today.’ (Gen. Chapter 2018)
“The urgent challenge to protect our common home includes a concern to bring the whole human family together to seek a sustainable and integral development”… (Laudato Si, 13).
“I renew my urgent call to respond to the ecological crisis… the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor cannot continue. Let’s take care of creation, a gift of our good Creator God”. (Pope Francis – 03-03-2020)
General Chapter 2018 recognized the cry of the earth and the urgent need to care for creation as a priority area for OLA missionary commitment, going so far as to say that protection of the environment and commitment to justice and peace should be a preferential option for the Church and for OLA today.
Pope Francis persistently calls Catholics and non-Catholics alike to an ecological conversion to safeguard the environment and preserve its natural resources for present and future generations. In May 2020, marking the fifth anniversary of the publication of the encyclical Laudato Sì: On Care for Our Common Home, he once again asked the global Catholic community to undertake ambitious actions to address the mounting environmental perils facing the planet and its people — climate change; ecosystems approaching tipping points; and the unprecedented threat of biodiversity loss facing 1 million plant and animal species.
The OLA Green Community and Green Apostolate Campaign is an initiative to help us to respond to this call to undertake ambitious actions and take seriously our commitment to making the protection of the environment and working for climate justice a preferential missionary commitment for OLA today. Let us join with Catholics all over the world to truly desire and experience an ecological conversion so we develop a profound sense of the oneness of all creation.
Only by working together can we make an impact for climate justice.