‘From Hope to Action’ is the theme for Laudato Si’ Week this year. So how are we moving from hope to action?
It's been over five years since Archbishop Shane committed our Diocese to the Laudato Si’ Action Platform in November 2021, pledging our commitment to the seven goals for ecological conversion over the next seven years. So, what has happened since then?
Laudato Si' Week is an annual global Catholic celebration marking the anniversary of Pope Francis’ 2015 Encyclical Laudato Si’ (Praise be to you) on 'Care for Our Common Home'. It promotes ecological conversion through prayer, reflection and concrete action, encouraging communities to address climate change, consumerism and the cries of the poor.
At its heart is a simple but challenging idea from Pope Francis, a “true ecological approach always becomes a social approach," hearing both “the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.".
The Laudato Si’ Action Platform, launched in 2020, is a global initiative administered by the Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development to call parishes to commit to the seven Laudato’ Si’ Goals. In Australia, we are encouraged to sign up with Caritas to become “Catholic Earthcare” parishes, schools or organisations, because this framework is deliberately grounded and local: focusing on energy use, waste reduction, ethical purchasing, education and prayer; small steps that, together, form what Pope Francis calls an “ecological conversion.”
When Archbishop Shane committed our Diocese to the Laudato Si ' Action Platform in 2021 and commissioned Caritas Earthcare parish and school representatives in Nathalia in 2022, his commitment wasn’t symbolic. It marked a decision to embed care for creation into the everyday life of the Church; in the way parishes operate, the way schools educate, and the way communities pray and act.
The Chancery became a Catholic Earthcare organisation in 2021 and, after an audit and consultations with Chancery staff and the Care for Creation Team, submitted an Action Plan during Laudato Si’ Week on 16 May 2025.
By the end of 2025, eighteen of Sandhurst’s 38 parishes had signed with Catholic Earthcare. Seven had completed the audit and one has developed and submitted a formal action plan with Caritas. Many parishes have started working on the audit, but finding volunteers and time to push through to come up with a concrete plan can be a struggle.
It’s important to remember that we can still work towards ecological conversion while we develop a concrete plan. Doing little things can make a big difference: a parish switching to reusable cups: a school planting trees; a family walking to Mass; a parish making ethical coffee purchases; students learning about ecology or a species’ habitat …
The Diocese of Sandhurst’s journey shows that these small steps matter. Not because they solve everything, but because they shape who we are becoming.
And perhaps that is the deeper question Laudato Si’ Week places before us:
Not just what can we do for the earth? But what kind of people are we called to be?
At the end of the day, it’s recognising that creation is not just a resource, but a gift.
“Hope would have us recognise that there is always a way out, that we can always redirect our steps, that we can always do something to solve our problems.” LS 61