OUR LAUDATO SI DECLARATION: We joyfully declare that we have read the Papal Encyclical, Laudato Si, as a community and both collectively and individually we pledge our hearts and minds to the enactment of this encyclical.
We have joined together to read this encyclical and discuss its importance for our local communities and the world, and we wish to share with others the joy, hope and integrity that it offers.
Diverse international perspectives informed our work and will enable us to take the encyclical’s message far and wide.
We commit ourselves to sharing these ideas with people we meet and to engage others in prayer, action and advocacy for the environment and all of God’s creation. We do this in order to make our common home a better place to live for future generations. Also to decrease the impact of selfish overuse of environmental resources that has and continues to destroy our natural world and cause many people to suffer, especially the poor, the under-served and at-risk communities.
With urgency, we pledge to confront our broken consumption-based economy and look to new ways of building community that will benefit all peoples. We commit ourselves wholeheartedly in a spirit of peace, justice and integrity for all creation.
Signed:
Sr Maxine Pohlman SSND (Oblate Ecological Initiative, Godfrey IL, USA)
Betsy Slosar (Center for Spirituality & Sustainability, Edwardsville IL, USA)
Virginia Woulfe-Beile (The Sierra Club, Alton IL, USA)
Rev. Bill Veith (ELCA Lutheran Pastor, Alton IL, USA)
Richard Worthen (Alton IL, USA)
Fr Jack Lau (Oblates of Mary Immaculate, Godfrey IL, USA)
Fr Tom Horan (Oblates of Mary Immaculate, Godfrey IL, USA)
Fr Rudy Nowakowski (Oblates of Mary Immaculate, Godfrey IL, USA)
Amila Perera (Gampaha, Sri Lanka)
Nishan Priyadarshana (Buttala, Sri Lanka)
Jean-Emmanuel Meloncourt (Port-au-Prince, Haiti)
Paul Raj Arulanantham (Dindigul, Tamil Nadu, India)
Joshua Nash (Adelaide, Australia)
Steven Montez (Kingsville TX, USA)