The Green Team celebrated Laudato Si week by launching the first phase of an Action Plan to support Pope Francis’ goal to engage all of us in “Caring for our Common Home.”   After morning Masses on May 21st, parishioners were asked to put a green dot on any of seven goals  that they deemed important and/or interested them. 

The results gave us a sense of where the energy is in the parish. Three goals - Answering the Cry of the Poor, Answering the Cry of the Earth and Community Engagement -  generated the most interest at St. Monica’s. 

Special thanks to our partners from both the City of Santa Monica and Los Angeles. They handed out over 300 kitchen pails for composting to parishioners! The kitchen pails will help our parish and the city get the organic waste (food scraps and garden debris) out of our trash stream. This important action reduces the release of methane, a potent greenhouse gas created by organic waste in landfills. Using kitchen pails for food waste is an example of an action item under Laudato Si  Goal 4 Living Simple and Sustainable Lifestyles. 

It’s not too late to participate and share your views. Review the seven goals and  share what goals are your top areas of concern here. 

Attendees at a May 25th followup workshop on Composting/Recycling learned what goes where in the three bin systems-: Recycling in the Blue Bin, Green Waste for Composting in the Green Bin, and Landfill in the Black Bin. Check out a recording of the workshop here.

The Green Team was delighted to support St. Monica Preparatory Upper School Environmental Club as they hosted a school wide trash audit at lunch time May 26th. The students were amazed at the 25 lbs of food waste they were able to divert from the trash stream after the lunch period ended. Full audit findings are forthcoming.

Pope Francis says, “Nature cannot be regarded as something separate from ourselves or as a mere setting in which we live.” (LS 139) Our treatment of the natural world is deeply tied to poverty and other social, and ethical issues. Laudato Si reminds us that in order to live our faith we must start to hear the cries of the poor and the earth as one cry. That is the holistic spirit of Laudato Si’.

Ladauto Si’ Action Plan background

The Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development has developed 7 goals to provide focus areas for reflection and action. That which gets measured, gets done!  It’s time to hold ourselves  accountable to the cries of the poor and the cries of the earth. The entire parish is encouraged to participate in the network of solutions necessary to solve this complex, ecological crisis starting with creation of family plans. 

The Laudato Si Action Platform  provides tips and examples for families to make personal plans or to participate in the creation of the  parish plan. The goal is to  create unique, bold plans to respond to the ecological crisis. Sample plans are available  here.

Which goal area speaks to you? The St. Monica Green Team would like to hear from you! Drop your thoughts here.