Friends,

We send warm greetings of Peace and Good for all of you gathered this week at WYD in Krakow.

We are young people from several countries in Latin America, of different creeds and social sectors, who from our different perspectives of faith, care about the deterioration of our Common Home, and are taking steps towards the formation of an inter-religious network to promote the caring of the Earth.

God has called us to be the light and salt of the earth, to be the difference in a world where everything is bought and discarded.

We need to recognize today that we are Earth and God made us stewards of God’s creation in order to appreciate its beauty, take care of her and love her.

Today it is necessary to feel a deep compassion with Creation groaning with labor pains.

The suffering of the poorest and most vulnerable and the agony of our Mother Earth are crying out in one voice.

As young people, we feel we are the present and future of our nations and now is the time to create a worldwide convergence of young people in favor of Creation, which we are all a part of.

We need to be protagonists in defending our common home. In that regard, we are feel all very much inspired by Pope Francis’ Encyclical Laudato Si’.

The broad participation of religious organizations at COP21 and its impact in the achievement of the Paris Agreement on climate change, confirms the potential we all have as people of faith, to promote necessary reforms that benefit the environment.

Although it is encouraging that at least 175 governments have committed to reduce their greenhouse gases emissions, a more systematic change is needed to ensure that global average temperature does not increase more than 1.5 ° C.

Together, we demand measures that reflect the precautionary principle, the primacy of the common good and an intergenerational ethic from the perspective of justice.

We believe in actions from the local to the global.

Let us start with concrete actions in our everyday lives, such as saving and using water efficiently, eating healthy and using renewable resources.

Moreover, it is urgent, from a faith perspective, to combat the lack of awareness among our people and to seek a personal change in regards to the caring of Creation.

Let’s hope that our commitment strengthens the work needed to achieve an integral ecological conversion, which carries a prophetic vocation.

We need to denounce the economic systems and the direct role that these have — especially due to transnational’s — in the indiscriminate use of natural goods, such as water, turning them into market resources rather than a human right given by grace to all Creation. We cannot allow ecocide.

We believe the struggle for justice is part of following Jesus, and the spiritual leap every human being must take at this time in history.

Please share our greetings of gratitude to Pope Francis for his example and inspirational leadership for the Earth and universal peace.

We wish you all, a unique experience, as we all join hands and dreams to find new ways to care for creation and create a more sustainable world.

May you all return home with renewed strength to keep us all together, from our different places, fighting for our Common Home.

Be strengthened together. There is a world to win.

In solidarity and faith,

Youth from the convergence “Faith and Climate: Sacred Waters”