New practical guide integrates science with
messages from Pope Francis to promote action for a sustainable future.
A booklet and
website co-created by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) and the
Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development provide succinct,
easy-to-grasp explanations of urgent environmental issues, combined with
messages from Pope Francis’s 2015 Encyclical on the care for our Common Home,
Laudato si’, showing how individuals and communities can make a difference by
offering multiple ways to take action.
The guide is the product of a collaboration initiated
in 2020 by the Swedish Ambassador to the Holy See. SEI and the Dicastery worked
closely together, with SEI contributing its scientific and communications
expertise, while the Dicastery grounded the messages in the Catholic faith,
meant for individuals, faith-based groups and communities.
The booklet covers key topics to spotlight – climate
change, biodiversity, water, food production, air pollution, sustainable
consumption, and links between sustainability and social justice. “We are at a
critical historical moment where actions today will determine the fate of
generations to come,” said Cardinal Michael Czerny, Prefect of the Dicastery
for Promoting Integral Human Development. “The challenge ahead is monumental;
we need nothing short of a ‘bold cultural revolution’ (Laudato si’ 114) to
respond to it adequately. For this reason, the guidebook we offer today to
local churches and community groups represents an important and hopeful
collaboration between two great sectors: that of science, and that of faith.
While starting from complementary worldviews, what we hold in common is what
matters – science and faith share core values and purpose capable of healing
the world.”
This is SEI’s first-ever collaboration with the
Vatican, but Executive Director Måns Nilsson said the project fits well with
SEI’s mission to bridge science and policy to advance sustainability. “In all
we do at SEI, we have a dual mission to produce robust, trustworthy science,
and communicate the results so they are clear, compelling and actionable,” he
said. “Robust evidence is as crucial as ever, but what drives people’s actions
is their values, and their sense of their place in the world. By combining our
organizations’ respective strengths, we have produced a booklet that I believe
will be very compelling and useful to readers.
At a time when many people feel hopeless, like they
can’t possibly make a difference, this guide shows they can – both
individually, and by advocating collectively for systemic change.” The guide,
released today at a virtual event, is available in English, French, Italian,
Portuguese and Spanish, as a 20-page printed booklet, and online at
sei.org/ourcommonhome/ and at humandevelopment.va. In both formats, it combines
beautiful photography and graphics with succinct summaries of the science on
each topic, a clear outline of what needs to change, and ways to take action.
Quotations from Laudato si’ introduce each section, and the Pope’s “prayer for
our earth” from the Encyclical accompanies the conclusion. The Dicastery is
ready to distribute more than 500 000 print copies of the booklet to parishes
around the world, and SEI and the Dicastery will work together to promote the
project online and highlight the changes that it inspires.
A key tool in this regard will be the Laudato Si’
Action Platform, an online hub run by the Dicastery that brings together
Catholics who have mobilized to tackle ecological challenges, in line with the
Pope’s call to action. “The value of collaborating with the Holy See on global
issues is, I believe, sometimes overlooked, especially in the non-Catholic
world”, said Andrés Jato, Sweden’s current Ambassador to the Holy See. “This
project however clearly illustrates the importance to engage with an actor that
has an unprecedented ability to connect to people’s hearts and minds and that
has a global infrastructure that allows it to reach out to every corner in the
world. The Holy See is a force for positive change, in a stage of history when
change is needed more than ever. Sweden is proud to have taken an active part
in this collaboration and we will continue to look for opportunities to
cooperate with the Holy See”. Watch a recording of the launch event. Read more
about the project Explore the online version of the guide (PDF downloads also
available in 5 languages) on sei.org/ourcommonhome and humandevelopment.va
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