CONSECRATED LIFE

Integral ecology is a vision that recognizes the deep interconnectedness of all reality — God, human beings, and the whole of creation — and calls us to care for this web of relationships with justice, love, and responsibility. It is a way of expressing the concept of Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation within a paradigm that better captures the complexity and interconnectedness of all reality.

1. WHAT IT MEANS

• Seeing the unity between people, creation, and God.
• Recognizing that social, economic, cultural, and environmental crises are interconnected.
• Understanding that care for the earth is inseparable from care for the poor and vulnerable.
• Living with responsibility, sobriety, and gratitude, rather than unsustainably, with a consumerist lifestyle, and exploitation.
• Moving from domination, competition, and extractive attitudes to life-giving relationships, stewardship, cooperation and communion.
• Connecting the pastoral, liturgical, educational, social, economic, political and environmental dimensions of ministries.

2. WHY THIS MATTERS

• Our world faces ecological degradation, growing inequality and a piecemeal Third World War, as various aspects of a “polycrisis”, namely, a condition in which multiple, distinct crises occur simultaneously and interact in ways that amplify each other’s severity, creating systemic risks that are greater than the sum of their individual parts.
• The awareness that “all is connected” demands a different approach from a Church that “goes forth”.
• The cry of the earth and the cry of the poor are one and call for a pastoral response: either we are saved together, or nobody will be saved.

3. WHY IT CONCERNS RELIGIOUS LIFE

• We are not living in a time of changes, but in a change of time: evangelization is always historically situated, and the mission and charism of each Religious Institute must respond to such changes.
• The prophetic dimension of Religious Life implies the call to witness the Gospel and the Kingdom of God in today’s reality.
• Embracing integral ecology transforms communities into signs of hope and alternative living.

4. A GOSPEL CALL TODAY

Integral ecology is not an “extra concern” — it is part of our fidelity to the Gospel. We are invited to a deep ecological conversion that touches our prayer, our lifestyle, and our mission. As Religious, we can become living signs of reconciliation for humanity and creation.

5. QUESTIONS FOR DISCERNMENT

• How does our Congregational charism connect to integral ecology?
• What signs of the times are drawing us toward the paradigm of integral ecology?
• What particular invitations is the Holy Spirit making to our community in relation to integral ecology?

1. REMEMBER:

“I urgently appeal, then, for a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet. We need a conversation which includes everyone.” (Pope Francis, Laudato Si’ 14)

1. KEY REFERENCES

= Francis (2015) Laudato Si’ (Care for Our Common Home)

= Francis (2020) Fratelli Tutti

= Francis (2023) Laudate Deum

= Integral ecology bibliography (https://www.zotero.org/laudatosiinstitute/collections/E4WPXMGH/)

= Interdicasterial document “Journeying towards Care for Our Common Home” (https://catholicclimatecovenant.org/resources/journeying-towards-care-for-our-common-home/)

KEY RESOURCES

= Laudato Si’ Action Platform (https://laudatosiactionplatform.org/)

= Laudato Si’ Movement (https://laudatosimovement.org/)

= Sowing Hope for the Planet (https://www.sowinghopefortheplanet.org/)

= VIVAT Eco Life and Action (https://www.vivatinternational.org/eco/)

ORIENTATION TO ENGAGEMENT

1. Each community needs to define its own journey in detail, according to Congregational charism, situation, context, and so on. Four criteria can facilitate a community engagement in integral ecology, namely:

1. The process should build on what Religious communities are already doing: not only this means tapping their creativity and existing initiatives, but it is the only realistic way of building a movement for integral ecology.

2. It should be simple and gradual enough to be manageable: communities are often already overstretched, caught in-between many commitments and limited number of personnel. The process needs not scaring them away from making a commitment.

3. It should be inspiring enough to motivate: communities need to see in this initiative an opportunity to live their charism and their prophetic mission to the fullest.

4. And flexible enough to suit different situations and contexts: a process suggests a sense of direction and essential points of reference. For the rest, participants will have all the freedom of the children of God.

RECOMMENDED INITIATIVE

Join the Laudato Si’ Action Platform (LSAP) (https://laudatosiactionplatform.org/): this initiative, coordinated by the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, aims at creating a critical mass for systemic transformation. The LSAP is very simple and minimally structured, to be able to welcome and include everyone. By joining the LSAP one commits to discern, plan and implement a path of conversion to integral ecology. The Platform is organized in 7 sectors, bringing together participants who share similar life conditions, needs and vocation. This synodal endeavour invites participants to align their commitments with 7 shared goals (Laudato Si’ Goals), and it offers support and resources for an effective conversion to integral ecology.