The roof of St Maximilian Kolbe parish in Kingston-Marden, Queensland is freshly adorned with rows of solar panels – a concrete sign of the parish community’s commitment to playing its part in preserving God’s creation in the spirit of Pope Francis’ Laudato Si.

Parish Priest Fr Sunil Paul Nagothu SVD says parishioners have worked hard to raise funds to support the transition to renewable energy, with the purchase and installation of the solar panels now providing a sustainable power solution for the parish.

“It’s been on my mind for a while to do this and when I planted the seed with the Parish Council, they embraced it enthusiastically,” Fr Sunil says.

“We had already planted about 50 plants on the parish campus, which were provided free by the local council, so the solar energy was the next step.

“We embarked on a fundraising drive to pay for the panels and the whole parish has overwhelmingly supported it. We needed $10,000 to do it and we have already got $9000 from the fundraising.”

Fr Sunil says the parish is now looking forward to saving significant amounts of money on its power bills, as well as contributing to a cleaner environment.

“It really started with Pope Francis’ compelling encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si: On Care for our Common Home, where he appealed to ‘every person living on this planet’ to acknowledge the urgency of our current environmental challenges,” Fr Sunil says.

“The Encyclical calls for a new global solidarity, where all individuals, communities and governments must respectively play a part in preserving God’s creation.

“The Holy Father called for us to respond with an ‘ecological conversion’ (a phrase of St John Paul II’s) where actions that promote sustainable ecological and environmental benefits should be critically sought in an effort to consciously protect the planet and the natural world.”

Fr Sunil says along with the new trees in the parish grounds, which reduce carbon footprint and provide shelter for local birdlife, there is also an established rain-water harvesting, which ensures the beautiful lawns and gardens are kept well irrigated all year round.

“We’re now exploring other avenues to adopt ecologically sustainable and environmentally responsible initiatives to continue the parish’s commitment towards preserving its environment,” he says.