ARGENTINA, Adela Helguera and Carlos Eduardo Ferré •
The first environmental forum was created at San Miguel in the city of Santa Maria, based on Francis’ proposal of generating local dialogs dealing with subjects he poses in Laudato Si.
“We are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis which is both social and environmental…It is essential to seek comprehensive solutions.”
Pope Francis
Pope Francis’ proposal, in the Encyclical Laudato Si, to generate local dialogs to take care of environmental problems inspired institutions and neighbors of the area to meet at Cuidad Santa Maria of the San Miguel Diocese on Saturday, 20 February. After carrying out a communitarian diagnosis of the environmental situation of the city neighborhood, focused on the integral ecology proposed by Francis, they decided to constitute a permanent forum.
More than 50 people said: Yes, let us take care of the planet
The meeting was held at the parish hall of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish at Trujuy, with the motto: LET US TAKE CARE OF THE PLANET AS A FAMILY. The Workshop students organized this meeting about the Encyclical Laudato Si, which was carried out by the Paul VI Study Institute of the Social Doctrine of the Church, of the San Miguel Bishopric. The San Miguel Social Ministry Team and the Religious Community of Assumption sponsored it.
The forum, which gathered more than fifty representatives from civil institutions, schools, chapels and neighbors of the city, resolved to meet again on Saturday, 16 of April at 4:00 p.m., in order to: begin to address the lines of action needed, to take care of the problems occurring in the different commissions that address subjects such as: contamination, the effects of global warming, the issue of water, quality of life, and the problems of social inequality.
