Like every June 5, we celebrate World Environment Day, which this year focuses on the restoration of ecosystems with the slogan “Reimagine, recreate, restore”.
For a long time, humans have exploited and destroyed our planet’s environment and ecosystems, depriving the world of carbon sinks such as forests and peatlands. Every three seconds, the world loses an area of forest equivalent to a football field and, in the last century alone, we have destroyed half of our wetlands and coral reefs.
The Encyclical Letter Laudato Sí of Pope Francis, on the care of the Common Home, makes us reflect on this: “What kind of world do we want to leave to those who succeed us? What is at stake is our own dignity. We are the first interested in leaving a habitable planet for humanity that will succeed us ”.
A healthy environment is key to fulfilling the United Nations 2030 Agenda and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals that back it up. We have less than ten years to achieve a real transformation of our societies that entails solutions to global challenges such as climate change, the loss of biodiversity or pollution.
The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the dire consequences of ecosystem loss: the reduction of the animals’ natural habitat has created ideal conditions for pathogens, including coronaviruses, to spread.
Hospitality and sustainability
At Sisters Hospitallers we are very aware of the close relationship between health and environmental protection and, therefore, we have a firm commitment to sustainable development and the care of our Common Home. As Pope Francis says “Everything is connected”, and for this reason we must build together a just and sustainable world, since concern for nature, justice for the poor, commitment to society and inner peace are inseparable.
The difficult time that we are going through as humanity invites us, today more than ever, to deep reflection on the interrelationship between health problems, economic inequality, environmental degradation and social exclusion. That is why we invite you to the Hospital Community to join in the collective reflection and get down to work to build, together, a better world.
You can see the message of Pope Francis on the occasion of Laudato Sí Week here.
