‘We are not alone’

Lettuce and oregano, what Germán Lucero and Carolina Campillay will soon bring to a Mendoza penitentiary.

“He does not abandon us, he does not leave us alone, for he has united himself definitively to our earth, and his love constantly impels us to find new ways forward.” (LS 245)

Carolina Campillay and Germán Lucero are using their Laudato Si’ Animator final project to make sure inmates at an all-women penitentiary in Mendoza, Argentina, also feel God’s love.

Carolina Campillay

Germán Lucero

Campillay and Lucero are going to plant an organic orchard at the penitentiary that inmates, who are sometimes there with children, can use to nurture themselves and their families.

“We are not alone. We environmentalists can reach out through other tools that are the words of the Pope,” Campillay said.

The two came up with the idea “because agriculture is more useful than mining, and above all to be able to sustain these families . . . so that they are useful and this becomes a chain of favors. The penitentiary helps, and people help the penitentiary,” Campillay said.

Lucero’s personal copy of Laudato Si’

Thousands of other inspired Catholics completed similar community-changing projects earlier this year as part of the Laudato Si’ Animator program, which equips people on six continents with the tools and knowledge they need to change the world.

The free, six-week Animator program provides online training in the participant’s language (English, Spanish, Italian, and Polish are available) on the tenets of Laudato Si’ and the need for all of us to urgently act against the climate crisis.

Campillay and Lucero’s class ended in June. But the next class of Laudato Si’ Animators is forming now. Join today and be on your way to becoming a champion for Catholic action on climate change!

Lucero said that, as a agronomist engineer, he felt that Laudato Si’ personally spoke to him.

 

“Laudato Si’ is a compendium of love for nature, and I . . . see myself involved in its care and education of young people, since I teach in secondary school, and the contributions of the encyclical are very useful for the changing of habits,” said Lucero, who teaches high school science.

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the two had to put on hold their project. But they’re eager to help care for those in need as soon as they can.