CSJP Statement: Commitment on Laudato Si' Action Platform

The Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace has affirmed a Public Commitment Statement to participate in the Laudato Si' Action Platform organized by the Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development in Rome. Accordingly, we have registered on LaudatoSiActionPlatform.org.

Our commitment is to a seven-year plan to achieve ecological sustainability. The first year will be dedicated to developing the plan with measurable goals that we, as a Congregation, will pursue. The CSJP sisters and associates will work on all seven Laudato Si' goals as they are consistent with the work that we are already doing.

We, the Sisters and Associates of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace (CSJP), an International Congregation and member of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG), do herein commit ourselves, our ministries and our resources humbly, yet firmly, to a seven-year journey to pursue the seven Laudato Si' Goals as expressed in the Laudato Si' Action Platform. We find these goals to be consistent with our ongoing work in the CSJP community.

We have heard the "cry of the earth," from our founder's written words and through Chapter statements from 1990 to the present, and recognize Earth as our Creator’s gift, not to be exploited, but to be cared for and its resources shared among all people.

Our charism of seeking peace through justice expresses our willingness to address the "cry of the poor" as was the desire of Margaret Anna Cusack in founding our order. This work is expressed most recently in our commitments to growing in nonviolence, in opposition to nuclear weapons, in sharing our resources, in living Jesus’ way of radical hospitality, especially to migrants and refugees, and in working to overcome racism in all its systemic and personal expressions.

We further believe that by deepening our collaboration with others in the global Catholic community, especially the global sisterhood, we will contribute to the synergy required to reverse the current trends driving climate change, the extinction of species, growing inequality across the globe, and an endless war against hunger, forced migration, waste of resources, and the death that they
provoke.

We commit to the journey now with promises of more specific actions to follow in the months and years to come.

August 25, 2021

Download a PDF of the statement here.