The 2015 Encyclical Letter LAUDATO SI’ of Pope Francis on ‘Care for our Common Home’ is the focus of the Australian Province’s steering committee on climate justice, a group that was created in response to the Province Assembly held in April, 2022 to help facilitate ‘OLSH ecological conversion’ through exploration of and reflection on this extraordinary encyclical, and a commitment to action for our struggling mother earth. The committee, comprising OLSH Sisters from Australia and the Philippines, with representatives of their partners in mission, initially worked with Jacqui Remond, an ex-OLSH student, who is Co-Founder of the Laudato Si’ movement and the Laudato Si’ Consultant for the Australian Catholic University. This edition of OLSH Hearts for Others looks at the Introduction to Laudato Si’ as a way of responding to the committee’s suggestion regarding ‘exploring the message and sharing the story.’ It provides material for individual and community reading, reflection and discussion which relates to the OLSH charism and Spirituality of the Heart.

In his introduction to Laudato Si’, Pope Francis outlines the encyclical and urgently appeals to all people “for a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet.” (14) We are reminded that solutions to global environmental deterioration begin with a change of attitude, a profound interior conversion within each of us, through a process of letting ourselves be touched deeply, recognising, seeing, learning and loving—all of which “take us to the heart of what it means to be human” and move us “gradually away from what I want to what God’s world needs” (11). We are urged to allow scientific and technological solutions to “provide a concrete foundation for the ethical and spiritual itinerary that follows” (15).

Care of creation is not a new idea of Pope Francis’. In the introduction he refers to St Francis of Assisi, whose words inspire the title of the encyclical and who “felt called to care for all that exists,” with bonds of affection for the earth as a mother who opens her arms to embrace us (11); to his predecessors Paul VI, Benedict XVI and John Paul II, all of whom taught that respect for human dignity includes “care for the world around us,” (5); and acknowledges that his own statements “echo the reflections of scientists, philosophers, theologians and civic groups” (7) who can enrich the Church’s thinking on questions of environmental damage and rejuvenation.

The introduction to Laudato Si’ strongly puts forward a challenge to all of us to no longer be in denial, indifferent or blindly confident in technical solutions alone. What we need, Pope Francis explains, is a new universal solidarity so that every person living on this planet might come together and consider how we are shaping the future of our common home (14). We are called to care with an attitude of awe and wonder and a contemplative gaze when we view God’s creation.

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