The "If You Take Care of the Planet, You Fight Poverty" campaign begins a new phase focused on transforming attitudes.

The campaign was relaunched on October 4, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi (a model of relationship with creation and care for our common home) to present the new stage that begins the campaign "If You Care for the Planet, You Fight Poverty", after culminating a two-year journey in which an intense awareness-raising program has been promoted around the care of Creation and the encyclical Laudato Si' of the Pope Francis.

Influencing the transformation of local communities

Following the prophetic breath of this encyclical, the entities that promote the Campaign – Caritas, CEDIS, CONFER, Justice and Peace, Manos Unidas and REDES (Network of Entities for Solidarity Development) – have agreed to continue adding synergies with the objective of promoting the values and principles of Laudato Si' in local Christian communities, and demonstrate the importance of the relationship between our lifestyles, environmental degradation, and the reality of impoverished communities in driving individual, community, and social transformation.

The figure of Francis of Assisi, whose feast day is celebrated at the beginning of autumn, when Nature begins another annual cycle, serves as a paradigm “of care for the weak and of an integral ecology, lived with joy and authenticity. (…) He showed particular attention to God’s creation and to the poorest and most abandoned. (…) In him we see how inseparable concern for nature, justice for the poor, commitment to society and inner peace are” (LS n. 10).

In this new stage, the Campaign will continue to promote the dissemination and reflection of the programmatic axes of the Laudato Si' within each Christian community, in each of the diocesan territories throughout the country, and focusing on the urgency of “combating poverty.”

To this end, the activities planned for the coming months will seek to highlight the impact of environmental degradation on impoverished territories and their populations, who are the first and primary victims of inadequate human intervention, both locally and globally.

For the Campaign's sponsoring entities, it is urgent to get to work to promote personal transformation—lifestyle changes—community transformation—through ecclesial and collective mobilization—and social transformation—through political advocacy.

Alliance with REPAM

Within this new phase, the Campaign will be strengthened through its alliance with the Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial Network (REPAM), a highly active initiative both in the defense of Amazonian communities and in publicly denouncing violations of their ancestral rights in international forums.

Along these same lines, the holding of the Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon Region in October 2019, with the aim of reflecting on the theme "New Paths for the Church and for an Integral Ecology," represents a new opportunity to strengthen the objectives identified by the Campaign in this new phase.

All the information on their website: https://www.enlazateporlajusticia.org/