Instituting Laudato Si’

Seeking to unite the ecological movement with Christian orthodoxy, The Laudato Si’ Institute for the Care of Creation, based in Granada, Spain, is aiming to foster “the study of and education in the care of creation in light of the Encyclical Laudato Si’ and the tradition of Christian social doctrine,” as well as to promote active initiatives “for the application of the encyclical, and especially for the promotion of community development and entrepreneurship, particularly in rural areas, from Christian communities.”

In a preface explaining the formation of the institute, His Excellency Javier Martínez Fernández, Archbishop of Granada, said that contemporary adherents to environmentalism "often see themselves in opposition to traditional Christian positions.”

Thus the institute “will pay special attention to the ethics and aesthetics that derive from the Christian event, that is, from the Christian social tradition whose most recent authoritative document is the encyclical Laudato Si’.”

The Institute's founding statement stresses that it will "strive, through all of its activities, with the help of the Lord and the intercession of the Virgin Mary, to achieve a true excellence in its human relationships – as is fitting for Christians. These will always be its main interest and its greatest draw, as well as the best guarantee of its academic excellence. It will also seek to be able to offer academic titles one day, one way or another, on its own or through the recognition offered by the competent ecclesial or civil authorities or other academic, ecclesiastical or civil institutions legally capable to do so."

One of the institute’s first educational initiatives is partnering with St. Joseph College in Maine to offer an online international graduate certificate in Christianity and an Integral Ecology: A World to Love and a Life to Live.

The certificate is made up of a five-course curriculum that covers topics from environmentalism and the New Evangelization, the environment, metaphysical and theological integral ecology, and living Laudato Si’.

This certificate curriculum is taught online and face-to-face in Standish, Maine, and Granada. For more information, or to apply for the certificate, visit the Saint Joseph web page here.

Archbishop Fernández's statement of formation of the Institute, and much more, can be found here.

Stay tuned for ongoing news about the Institute, and this most important offering of a graduate certificate. In the meantime, let's all offer a prayer or two, or a Mass, for the great success of these inspired efforts and for the health and wellbeing of all those working to bring Laudato Si' to life.