Laudato Si’ at 10 Years:
A Decade of Prophetic Witness for Our Common Home
Drake Starling
June 5, 2025
Ten years ago, Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato si’, shook the world and stirred the consciences of
people across faiths, beliefs, and the world. Pope Francis invited us into a radical reflection on how we relate to the Earth, to one another, and to the generations yet to come.
Laudato si’ was a clarion call to conversion—ecological, spiritual, economic, and political. And 10 years later, its message has only grown more urgent.
A Prophetic Vision
Pope Francis did not merely write about climate change — he extended a call for climate justice. It was a call about dignity. It was a call about systems. He named the ecological crisis not as a technical problem with a technical solution, but as a moral crisis born of the “throwaway culture” that treats both the Earth and its most vulnerable people as disposable.
Francis called for an “integral ecology,” one that recognizes the deep interconnectedness between environmental destruction and social injustice. As he framed it: “The cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor” are one and the same. Pope Francis put forth a vision of our future in which all creation, including humanity, thrives. This vision spans from breathable air, clean water, and healthy soil to clean energy systems, dignified jobs with good conditions and wages, and quality education, health care, and housing for all.
That vision changed the game. It catalyzed action among Catholic institutions and beyond: schools divested from fossil fuels, parishes installed solar panels, and Catholic climate activists joined movements demanding systemic change—from local resilience efforts to global climate negotiations.
Where Are We Now?
Ten years on, the planet is hotter, and the climate crisis is accelerating. Indigenous, Black, and Brown communities—those who have contributed the least to global emissions—suffer the harshest consequences of climate-related disasters, like wildfires, floods, and droughts. All the while, fossil fuel corporate executives, their lobbyists, and the politicians they bankroll continue to block meaningful solutions so they can keep on polluting and profiting. In fact, instead of protecting people and the planet, they hoard profits and power—leaving frontline communities to pay the price.
This is what we are witnessing today, as the Trump administration and some lawmakers in Congress try to slash funds for clean energy programs and roll back regulations for clean air and clean water for their own greedy reasons.
Yet, there is hope.
The spirit of Laudato si’ is alive. It’s alive in Indigenous land defenders resisting deforestation. It’s in young people demanding climate action. It’s in Catholic Sisters’ growing community gardens and doing advocacy work in Congress. It’s in the international Laudato Si’ Action Platform, where Catholic institutions commit to a just ecological transition. It’s in public and low-income housing where the Inflation Reduction Act funds programs to replace unsafe gas appliances with clean energy units. It’s in Catholic parishes across the country with Laudato Tree and Care for Creation teams.
And, it’s alive at NETWORK. In 2022, we successfully advocated for the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The IRA moved us into action for climate justice. It delivered well-paying green jobs, growth in solar and wind energy marketplaces, and more. Today, we’re working to protect and expand the progress of the IRA.
A Challenge for the Next Decade
As we mark this milestone, we must resist the temptation to sentimentalize Laudato si’. It was—and remains—a disruptive document. A holy provocation. A moral compass in a time of ecological unraveling.
In Laudate Deum, his 2023 follow-up encyclical, Pope Francis reminds us that the time for reflection has passed. Now is the time for bold action. His urgent call demanded that we confront the systems of power blocking change and act with those on the frontlines of ecological and human suffering.
NETWORK’s An Economy for All policy agenda responds to Pope Francis’ call. Guided by our agenda, we are together advocating for policies that make it possible for all of us to live with dignity—with clean air and water, dignified jobs and wages, and political systems responsive to the people, not to those with the most money.
Will we move beyond words to put this vision into action? Will we choose fossil fuel phaseouts over false solutions? Will we center the voices of those in poverty, the young, and the marginalized in our climate decisions? Will we let the Earth rest?
We owe it to our children. To the Earth. To our Creator.
A call to action on the 10th anniversary of Laudato si’
- Call your members of Congress and tell them to protect the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean energy tax credits. These vital investments help fight climate change, reduce harmful pollution, and build a future where all can thrive — especially those most impacted by environmental injustice.
- Share Laudato si’ with 10 people.
- Join your congregation’s care for creation efforts (or work with others to start one).
- Read about efforts to bring environmental justice to communities besieged by climate harm, like this one about Black women in Louisiana taking on polluters.
- Learn more about environmental injustice in your community with the environmental justice data project action portal.
As Pope Francis wrote, “All it takes is one good person to restore hope.” May we be many.