About Us
Laudato si', mi' Signore
Praise be to you, my Lord
Hearing the Karanga — the call — to care for our common home.
Laudato Si' Action Waitaha (Canterbury) is about hearing the Karanga — the call — to care for our common home. This includes a call to ecological conversion and adopting what Pope Francis called an integral ecology. Whakarongo (deep listening) and Te Kupenga (networking) are central to this response in Waitaha Canterbury.
Our precious earth, our common home, is suffering as the poorest of the poor among us. This climate crisis is a spiritual crisis — care for our common home is inseparable from justice and care for the poor.
We are part of the global Laudato Si' Movement — a worldwide network of Catholics and people of goodwill responding to Pope Francis' call.
In the words of Saint Francis of Assisi's beautiful canticle, our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us. This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her.
Laudato Si' · Pope Francis
Everyone is welcome
Our group was founded in 2022 by a small community of people in Waitaha Canterbury, called together by the Karanga of Laudato Si'. We are called to ecological conversion, to deep listening, and to local action for the earth and the poor.
Sr Kathleen Rushton rsm · Kevin Gallagher · Joanne Hope · Jenny Carter · Kathleen Gallagher · Ann Kennedy · Liz Roche