Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’ leads to ecological awakening in European Catholic organizations

Verghese V Joseph –

In a groundbreaking study to evaluate the impact of Pope Francis’ encyclical on Catholic environmental efforts across Europe, the Living Laudato Si’ European Survey, a first-of-its-kind initiative, was conducted by the European Laudato Si’ Alliance ( ELSiA). at the end of 2023, with the aim of evaluating the impact of Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’ on the ecological efforts of Catholic groups across Europe.

Led by St Mary’s University and involving a consortium of five universities, the survey analyzed responses from more than 283 Catholic organizations in 20 European countries. These are the main findings from the research:

• Laudato Si’ had a significant impact: 95% of responding European Catholic organizations were influenced by the encyclical, leading to major changes in 36% of them.
• Nearly half of the organizations expressed their commitment to maintain or increase their focus on ‘integral ecology’.
• There is a noticeable shift towards community involvement in Laudato Si’ initiatives, with 60% embracing a participatory approach.
• Collaboration is encouraged as a large majority of organizations work with both faith-based (82%) and non-faith-based groups (81%) on environmental issues.
• The involvement of the grassroots is prominent: 93% of the initiatives depend on volunteers and 37% are completely driven by them.
• Limited resources remain a challenge, with 38% of organizations spending less than 5% of their resources on environmental initiatives.

The report recommends providing more support to Catholic organizations by offering more time and resources, promoting discussions about ecology and equipping them with practical tools for effective environmental action. It also highlights successful ecological projects across Europe as models for replication.

Mgr. Crociata, President of COMECE, emphasized the vitality of Laudato Si’s ecological message in twenty European countries, especially in light of the recent environmental challenges faced by communities in Kenya and Brazil. “In these days when floods are affecting our brothers in Kenya and Brazil, this first study on Catholics and ecology shows that in twenty European countries the ecological message of Laudato Si is alive and flourishing,” he said.

Dr. Roland Daw, the lead researcher, emphasized the collaborative nature of Catholic environmental action in Europe, but raised questions about the adequacy of resources. “This exploratory work shows that there are many Catholic organizations across Europe that have made Laudato Si’ an important part of their work, and suggests that where this work is taking place it is clearly collaborative. However, the findings leave us with some questions, especially about whether Catholic environmental action is getting all the resources it needs,” he noted.

Laura Morosini, European program director of the Laudato Si’ movement, confirmed in the report the profound impact of Laudato Si’ on Catholic initiatives. She stated: ‘This report confirms the intuition of the radical impact of the encyclical Laudato Si’ on Catholic initiatives. initiatives. We found that the Season of Creation is a proven initiative, already celebrated by ⅔ of respondents. Something new is happening in the Church.”

Laura noted that two-thirds of respondents widely celebrate the Age of Creation, indicating a significant shift within the Church toward environmentalism.

The survey results were presented at a special ELSiA press conference on May 20, 2024, as part of Laudato Si Week, and the video is available on YouTube (Laudato Si Movement) and the ELSiA website.

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