How this resource was created and how to use it:
Care for Our Common Home is a 6-part series that goes through, chapter by chapter, through Pope Francis’ encyclical (letter) Laudato Si` (Praise be to You). This series tries to highlight a few of the key themes critical in moving towards an ecological conversion. If you don’t know what that is, then you’ll have to watch to the very end to find out. There are discussion questions sprinkled throughout each video. Pause the video if you want to jot the questions down and take some time to answer them. This resource was created to go through the material as an individual, a family, or a small group. While this was created out of a Catholic lens, one of the main points of this encyclical is that we dialogue, with other Christians, people of any faith tradition, scientists, artists, Indigenous Peoples, and anyone else. If you have any questions or would like more information on this topic, please contact Tashia Toupin at [email protected].
Need a copy of Laudato Si`?
Click HERE to download a PDF version from the Vatican website.
Click HERE to listen to Laudato Si’ narrated chapter by chapter.
Or, if you want to purchase a paper copy, we have some for sale from the Archdiocesan Pastoral Office for $15, email [email protected] for more information.
Episode 1:
The first episode kicks off with the 50th anniversary of Earth Day (that was the day it was recorded). We look at how the world has been made aware, in part because of the work that organizations like Earth Day and many others have done to raise scientific awareness around climate change over the last few decades.
Episode 2:
Welcome back for episode two! In this episode, we will delve into our creation stories about who and how the Creator instructed us to live within the rest of creation. We will explore the importance of our senses and what is the difference, if any, between domination and dominion. The wonder of all creation has something amazing to offer us if only we have eyes to see, ears to hear, a tongue to taste and laugh, and hearts to feel.
Episode 3:
This third episode really gets to the heart of the matter. Here we look at how our current culture prioritizes technology, profit, and progress over people, nature, and global well-being. You can’t have healthy people, animals, fungi, etc., on an unhealthy planet. In this video, we mostly look at problems, but we start to look at possible creative solutions in the next three videos. Don’t be dismayed by the potentially overwhelming problems we face, and make sure to watch the next episodes.
Episode 4:
In the last video, we discussed many of the problems facing our world. In this episode, we look at some of the principles of Catholics Social Teaching that help provide us with a lens for how we might best deal with these comprehensive problems.
Episode 5:
This first aired on Facebook during Laudato Si` Week! It was the 5th anniversary of LS being published. There is an invitation to look back on the last five years. Maybe you prefer to look to the future how we want to shape our society and world to hold people, nature, the commons as a higher priority over profits, pollution, and individual gains. We will talk about some helpful framing pieces to begin this important work. Dialogue, engaging in political discourse and giving voice to the marginalized all part of this.
Episode 6:
This is the final episode of our series. Thank you for watching, commenting, sharing, and for your engagement. In this episode, we go back to our roots, looking at some of the great saints that can help us understand what it means to live ecological conversion. Pope Francis gives us some criteria for someone who has experienced ecological conversion. Are you one of them?
