Laudato Si’ is an encyclical (open letter) written by Pope Francis; it was published on the 18 June 2015 and discusses the damage being inflicted on the earth by humans.   Laudato Si translates as ‘Praise be to you my Lord.’ It calls on ‘every person living on this planet’ to make urgent changes to our lifestyles and how we consume energy in order to protect the planet.  Pope Francis gives a detailed and clear message in the letter, he talks about many environmental issues including:

  • pollution
  • climate change
  • water
  • loss of biodiversity
  • decline in the quality of human life.

Throughout the letter, Pope Francis implores us to work together to create a better world for future generations.  He asks us to make the necessary changes in our lives in order to take care of, respect and value our ‘common home’.  At SMC we have listened to this call and made ‘Laudato Si’ our whole school focus for the year.  Each and every one of us is involved in developing ways to look after the beautiful world that God created for us. 

We launched our ‘Laudato Si’ mission with a whole school retreat day in September.  We unpicked the key messages from the letter and discussed what we can do to make a difference.  Each class then produced a display to bring those key messages to life.  Our main corridor is now immersed in Pope Francis’ call to protect our common home. 


Now that we have a deepened understanding of our mission, we are working to ensure we put our learning into practise. At SMC we welcome every opportunity to support Pope Francis in his task to make our world a better place and will continue to strive to do our bit to look after God’s wonderful world. 

We have an Eco Committee who play a very active role in giving our school community constant reminders about the importance of looking after our school environment.  They are excellent role models to us all; they undertake many tasks including organising regular litter picks in and around our school grounds and ensure we recycle as much as possible by monitoring our paper waste and emptying the recycling bins.