One of the 10 key principles underlying the Catholic Social Teachings refers to being STEWARDS OF THE ENVIRONMENT. This explains how we show respect for the Creator by our stewardship of creation. We have a responsibility to care for the world’s resources as stewards and trustees, not just as consumers. As people work towards making these principles a reality, good stewardship also means making careful and responsible decisions with the resources entrusted to us.
The family needs a home, a fit environment in which to develop its proper relationships. For the human family, this home is the earth, the environment that God the Creator has given us to inhabit with creativity and responsibility. We need to care for the environment: it has been entrusted to men and women to be protected and cultivated with responsible freedom, with the good of all as a constant guiding criterion. —Pope Benedict XVI, World Day of Peace 2008, 7.
Laudato Si, the encyclical penned by Pope Francis in 2015 and his Apostolic exhortation Laudate Deum in 2023 build further on the theme of environment and ecology whilst digging deeper on the call to people of goodwill to discern on how this translates into our everyday life choices.
If djakonija efforts seek to build and develop healthy communities, we can never cease to remind ourselves of our common home, perhaps with a stronger focus on immediate everyday life issues, that of course will have ramifications on more complex realities.
In Laudato Si chapter one we read: “The continued acceleration of changes affecting humanity and the planet is coupled today with a more intensified pace of life and work which might be called “rapidification”. Although change is part of the working of complex systems, the speed with which human activity has developed contrasts with the naturally slow pace of biological evolution. Moreover, the goals of this rapid and constant change are not necessarily geared to the common good or to integral and sustainable human development. Change is something desirable, yet it becomes a source of anxiety when it causes harm to the world and to the quality of life of much of humanity.”
Through our social enterprise LOOP as parishes we seek to provide some ideas on how we can all assimilate the option for the environment with the option for community development with a focus on persons who find themselves in all sorts of social difficulties. Through LOOP Djakonija Parrocci aims to stimulate efforts to care for each other and the environment, our common home.
Our efforts are a drop in the ocean, but full of hope and faith that it is an important part towards building better communities, living a fuller life, and participating in healthy communities.
What follows is an idea of what we have achieved for you to consider joining our efforts, emulating them in your circles or reaching out to work together!
