Laudato Si’ Pledge

United to the concern of the Church as expressed by Pope Francis in Laudato Si, the Augustinian Province of St. Thomas of Villanova commits itself to promote education, reflection and action to care for our common home.

In response to the invitation of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development to participate in the Laudato Si Action Platform, and in coordination with other religious communities of women and men, we publicly state our pledge to work toward sustainable solutions that foster integral human development by combatting hunger and poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded and protecting nature.

We resolve, over the next seven years, to:

  1. Pray fervently and reflect assiduously on our responsibility to care for God's creation.

  2. Elaborate an action plan to integrate and confidently advance each of the seven Laudato Si goals in our personal, communal and institutional life.

  3. Educate and encourage awareness among the members of our Province, encouraging us to examine our consumption patterns and lifestyle, to adopt behaviors more consistent with our environmental concern.

4. Introduce in our community discussion and pastoral encounters the topics of sustainability, environmental justice and integral ecology as expounded on in Laudato Si in an effort to encourage as well as live an ecological conversion.

5. Promote in our pastoral activities (homilies, conferences, workshops and classrooms) awareness, advocacy and actions to reduce our carbon footprint and embrace a culture of encounter and solidarity with those at the margins and most vulnerable and most impacted by environmental maltreatment.

6. We entrust our efforts to the intercession of St. Augustine, aware that the Augustinian community is called to be a prophetic sign in the world to the extent that fraternal life becomes a source of sharing and a cause for hope.

View the official pledge PDF with signatures here.

Would you like to read more about how Augustinian spirituality in reference to environmental stewardship? Read this enlightening booklet written by our very own Fr. Arthur Purcaro, O.S.A., about the connection between St. Augustine and the Environment.

You may also visit the official Laudato Si’ Action Platform website for more information about this initiative and the other participating partner organizations. And if you haven’t yet, make sure to read Pope Francis’s encyclical, Laudato Si’, which can be found in multiple languages.