Pope Francis has launched a seven-year “Laudato Sí Action Platform” aimed at helping communities become “totally sustainable, in the spirit of integral ecology.” The pontiff announced the new initiative in a video-message at the conclusion of the so-called “Laudato Sí Year” celebrating the fifth anniversary of the eponymous encyclical dedicated to “care of our common home.” The Laudato Sí Action Platform (LSAP) is the brainchild of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. At a press conference in the Vatican on Tuesday morning, the prefect of the dicastery, Cardinal Turkson, said “Now more than ever it’s time to act, to do something concrete.” He insisted, “We must listen to and respond to science, to the cry of the Earth, of the poor, and of our children… We must become painfully aware of the personal suffering it causes and as a result dare to use our agency to transform lived realities that listen to and abide by socio-ecological limits.” Turkson’s adjutant, Fr Josh Kureethadam SDB, laid out details of the plan. The LSAP, he said, “is a journey to realise the integral ecological vision of Laudato Sí… a journey towards total sustainability in the spirit of the integral ecology.” To that end, the Dicastery proposes seven “Laudato Sí Goals”: the response to the cry of the earth the response to the cry of the poor, ecological economics, adoption of simple lifestyles, ecological education, ecological spirituality, and community involvement and participatory action. The seven-year plan, Fr Kureethadam explained, will have three stages, with the first year dedicated to “the three fundamental tasks of community building, resource sharing, and drawing up concrete plans for the realisation of the seven Laudato Sí goals.” The following five years will be dedicated to concrete actions, while the final year of the project “will be the Sabbatical year to praise and thank God.”