Laudato Si'
On the World Day of Prayer for the Poor in 2021, the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development announced the launch of the next phase of the Laudato Si’ Action Platform. The Congregation of Sisters of St. Agnes (CSA) played a key role in its development as a member of the Religious Order working group.
The Laudato Si' Action Platform is a key Vatican initiative to empower the universal Church to achieve total sustainability in the holistic spirit of integral ecology. The human family faces increasing risks of hunger, disease, migration, and conflict due to climate change and environmental degradation, unfortunately, the most vulnerable suffer above all.
The Laudato Si’ Action Platform provides practical tools to address this socio-ecological crisis. Anyone who pledges to be part of the platform can access free resources to evaluate where they stand on the road to sustainability, reflect on the principles of integral ecology, and make a plan to take action.
From 2020-2021, CSA helped shape both the model and the content for this program. Through deep and sustained conversations with the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and a global network of partners, the Holy Spirit has created a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts, a shared space for action that offers new momentum to urgently address our socio-ecological crisis.
Read more about our seven year Laudato Si' commitment to action.
We invite you and all members of the universal Church to join us and the Vatican on this Laudato Si’ journey. The links below are great interfaith resources.
CSA Conservation Easement
On January 10, 2022, the Congregation of Sisters of St. Agnes (CSA) signed a Conservation Easement Document, in partnership with Glacial Lakes Conservancy (GLC), protecting 237 acres of Earth in perpetuity. CSA land, with its buildings, forests, prairies, wetlands, farm fields, cemetery, labyrinth, nature trails, and three stream channels running down the Niagara Escarpment will be protected from commercial development for all time.
We welcome visitors to the property for tours to learn more about the CSA property and the value of conservation easements.
Socially Responsible Investing
The Congregation of Sisters of St. Agnes is committed to socially responsible investing. Socially responsible investing has two prongs: one is the avoidance of industries that negatively affect the environment and its people, and the other is investing in companies that have a positive impact.
The congregation is a member of Seventh Generation Interfaith Coalition for Responsible Investing (SGI). SGI’s mission statement reads, “Through the lens of faith and the promotion of human rights, Seventh Generation Interfaith works to build a more just and sustainable world for those most vulnerable by integrating social and environmental values into corporate and investor actions.” CSA benefits from SGI’s membership in Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility.
The work of these organizations involves filing resolutions and dialoguing with companies asking for such things as transparency in their lobbying efforts, human rights for workers along the supply chain, protection for land, water, and other resources, and much more. In 2020, CSA was the lead filer in a resolution asking the Walt Disney company for more transparency in their lobbying expenditures.
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