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The Laudato Si’ Movement was born in the heart of the Church in the Archdiocese of Manila (Philippines), in communion with other organizations and leaders from all continents. It seeks to serve in faith, in imitation of Jesus Christ, Mary Most Holy and saints such as St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecology, to elevate the integrity of creation as a project of God’s love in which every creature has value and meaning.
In his Encyclical Letter Lumen Fidei, (The Light of Faith), Pope Francis refers to faith as a light that comes from the past and at the same time from the future: “Faith, received from God as a supernatural gift, becomes a light for our way, guiding our journey through time. On the one hand, it is a light coming from the past, the light of the foundational memory of the life of Jesus which revealed his perfectly trustworthy love, a love capable of triumphing over death. Yet since Christ has risen and draws us beyond death, faith is also a light coming from the future and opening before us vast horizons which guide us beyond our isolated selves towards the breadth of communion” (LF 4).
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Guided by the light and strength of the Holy Spirit, theLaudato Si’ Movement is united around the vision of a world based on sustainable and integral development, where human beings from all corners of the planet care for our common home through individual and collective acts, where individual commitment generates seeds of awareness, and great synergies allow us to influence decision-making centers to diminish the human contribution to climate change that dramatically impacts the lives of millions of people everyday.
Inspired by this cry of the Earth and of the poorest, the Movement has adopted the Encyclical Laudato Sí as its ground for action, the stimulus that we as humanity need to face with renewed hope the urgent call that the Creator makes to us about creation, and like the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of creation, we have given the Fiat to the invitation that the Holy Father makes to us in his Encyclical: “As Christians, we are also called “to accept the world as a sacrament of communion, as a way of sharing with God and our neighbors on a global scale. It is our humble conviction that the divine and the human meet in the slightest detail in the seamless garment of God’s creation, in the last speck of dust of our planet” (LS 9).
The care of creation is a tradition of faith expressed in the Scriptures and in the Catholic Social Doctrine, and the Movement bases its decisions on them, “and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross. Col 1:20.”
Such testimony–which also comes from other confessions of faith–unites and enlivens a large part of humanity in an open dialogue to take our responsibility, from our daily acts, in the healing of the deep wounds that individualism has left on earth and in the poorest. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Heb. 11:1″