Laudato si’ : establishing local approaches for global ecological conversion

Abstract

In 2017 the Aotearoa Community Development Association (ACDA) and the International Association for Community Development (IACD) held a conference, Sustainably yours: Community development and a sustainably just future, in Auckland where I presented a paper titled “Community development – The ‘missing ingredient’ in striving for sustainability”. That paper examined the United Nations Agenda 2030 (2015) and, in particular, the associated Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This paper will explore a further significant document, also released in 2015, the encyclical (letter) by Pope Francis, Laudato si’: On care for our common home. The paper starts with some history of the Pope’s work, moves on to provide an overview of the areas Laudato si’ encompasses, analyses some of the responses it has attained, and then concludes with a review of how and where community development theory and processes fit with the document.