Italian Province joins the “Laudato Si’ Action Platform”

The commitment to social justice and environmental justice is now inseparable, against a backdrop of a severe crisis that is suffocating the poorest of all. Human and non-human creatures are raising their voices together, feeling far removed from the promise of a full life that is so dear to the Creator.

At their most recent General Chapter, the Comboni Missionaries chose to respond to the challenges of the current epochal change in the light of the Word of God and in accordance with the fundamental principle of Integral Ecology, which links the pastoral, liturgical, formative, social, economic, political and environmental dimensions.

In particular, the Chapter calls for “adherence to the Laudato Si’ Action Platform  […] at various levels (community, Circumscriptions, Institute)”. This is a project promoted by the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, in operational collaboration with the Laudato Si’ Movement.

In practice, it is a personalised journey of commitment and conversion that each institution or group undertakes in its own way, to move towards sustainability in the spirit of the encyclical Laudato Si’. In addition to religious communities, families, parishes and dioceses, educational institutions, groups and movements are also taking part.

Symbolically, on May24, the eleventh anniversary of the encyclical Laudato Si’, the Italian Province of the Comboni Missionaries formalised its membership of this Platform.

The Province drew up the Laudato Si’ Handbook some time ago to guide missionary life in the light of this necessary conversion. The document first sets out the magisterial framework for this commitment and then presents concrete pathways in the five areas of food management, waste management, mobility, relationships and lifestyles, the economy, and utilities.

It is this Handbook that will serve as the reference point for our commitment to the Action Platform: through it, we will be able to share the reflections we have developed, the progress we manage to make, and our ability to involve other people and groups.

Following the Province’s formal membership to the Laudato Si’ Action Platform , in keeping with the commitment undertaken by the General Chapter, the next step will be the membership of individual Comboni communities in Italy. It is, in fact, in the territory where we live that we can bear witness most tangibly, within the fabric of our relationships, to the inspiration of Integral Ecology.

The Province’s Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) Commission stands ready to assist communities wishing to embark on this journey, offering guidance, suggestions and proposals.

As Pope Francis has reminded us, “along with the importance of little everyday gestures, social love moves us to devise larger strategies to halt environmental degradation and to encourage a “culture of care” which permeates all of society” (Laudato Si’, 231).

Father Dario Bosse, mccj