Christian World | The Vatican launched a digital atlas mapping Catholic ecological initiatives worldwide, as the Laudato Si' Action Platform presented its fifth annual report

ACW | November 4, 2026 — The Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development unveiled the "Atlas of Laudato Si'," a digital map of Catholic environmental initiatives, at the Holy See Press Office in Rome on Wednesday, Vatican News reported.

Users can select a country or diocese to find participating Catholic institutions and, where those institutions have consented, see their ecological plans, according to Vatican News.

The atlas draws on data from the Leonum Institute at the Catholic University of America and the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome, and also shows data on natural disasters, EWTN News reported.

The Laudato Si' Action Platform also presented its fifth annual report at the event. The platform has about 13,000 registered profiles, including some 6,200 institutions and 7,400 families and individuals, Vatican News said.

"These are not simply environmental projects, but choices about what we teach and what we safeguard," said Sister Alessandra Smerilli, the dicastery's prefect, speaking in Italian.

Molly Burhans, the American cartographer who led the atlas's data collection, told EWTN News: "The best way to understand the environment is maps."

Lorna Gold, executive director of the Laudato Si' Movement, said the climate emergency "will not wait" for church institutions to feel ready to change.

Background: "Laudato Si'" is Pope Francis' encyclical on care for the Earth, dated May 24, 2015. This year's report covers the platform's first five years, according to Vatican News.

Why it matters: Caring for creation is "not something optional nor a secondary aspect of Christian experience," Smerilli said, as quoted by EWTN News. The atlas links the work of Catholic institutions to geographic and climate data, Vatican News reported.

ACW will continue to follow this story.

Sources: Vatican News — Laudato Si' Platform, Smerilli: shared choices to heal the Earth's wounds; Laudato Si' Action Platform — Atlas of Laudato Si'; EWTN News — Vatican publishes digital atlas honoring Pope Francis' ecological vision

Photo: Daniel Ibáñez / EWTN News