Laudato sí Movement Consolidated And Renewed

Laudato sí Movement consolidated and renewed The Global Catholic Climate Movement on July 29 changed its name to Laudato sí Movement (LSM). Climate and integral ecology are at the heart of the Movement, which takes its cue from Pope Francis’ landmark encyclical on care for our common home. Speaking with Vatican News, the executive director of LSM, Tomás Insua, speaks about a “synodal journey” aimed at a deeper ecological conversion. As the Movement continues to renew itself, Pope Francis offers a word of thanks for its work.

“To inspire and mobilize the Catholic community to care for our common home and achieve climate and ecological justice”: with its new mission statement, the Laudato sí Movement, originally known as the Global Catholic Climate Movement outlines its new objectives as it enters a new phase of its work for the environment.

The birth of the Movement

The Movement was founded in 2015 by a group of 17 Catholic organizations and 12 representatives of academic institutions and civil society from all continents, and is committed to helping the faithful respond to the exhortations of Pope Francis' encyclical on the care of the common home, published that same year. Today, six years later, the Laudato sí Movement includes more than 800 diverse entities. Recently, the Movement undertook “a journey of discernment over 18 months long.” Tomás Insua, co-founder and executive director of that reality, explained to Vatican News that the journey was a reflection on identity, mission, name and structures that compose the movement. “What emerged was that the name Global Catholic Climate Movement, which served us well in the very beginning, didn’t reflect the broad work in support of the Laudato sí encyclical that we were doing,” Insua said. “So after a long discernment process that included a consultation of our members at and our key partners … we ended up discerning that the name should be Laudato si Movement.” He said, “The name intends to reflect better the work, the more holistic work to care for our common home that we have been doing in recent years. The broader work of integral ecology and ecological conversion, that we are doing in the service of Laudato si.” The new name was chosen from a list of 25 possibilities. Lorna Gold, president of the board of directors, who introduced the changes in an online meeting on Thursday, emphasized, “It is important to note that the mission is being broadened to include the concept of ecological justice, based on the spirit of Laudato si’, where ‘everything is interconnected’.” Source