DHAKA – Inspired by the Pope Francis’s encyclical letter, Laudato Si’, Catholic young people in Bangladesh have been working on an awareness campaign ahead of World Environment Day on June 5.

The Bangladesh Catholic Students’ Movement (BCSM) began its campaign on Earth Day, April 22, an effort bringing youth organizations in all eight dioceses of Bangladesh together to work toward a common goal.

As part of the campaign, students have been cleaning schools, streets, municipal areas, college campuses, and parishes.

“Laudato Si’ has inspired us to increase environmental awareness and we are doing this campaign to save our mother earth,” said BCSM President Aditya Rodriguez.

Rodriguez said the Youth Commission of the Bangladesh Catholic Bishops’ Conference has been a big help in organizing and supporting the campaign, which has involved more than 1,000 young people from all over Bangladesh.

Suman Das of Satkhira, a coastal district in southern Bangladesh that is at risk of environmental disasters, planted 10 trees in the free space of his houses as part of this campaign.

“I heard about Laudato Si a long time ago in church and now the campaign from BCSM, I came to know about it, so I planted trees in the free land in my yard,” Das told Crux Now.

“If we don’t protect our mother earth,” Das said, “then we will be in danger.”

Father Bikash James Rebeiro, CSC Executive Secretary & National Youth Coordinator of Catholic Bishops’ commission of Bangladesh, told Crux Now he hoped to help young people “to transform their faith from reflection into tangible action through this intensive 45-day campaign to protect our common home.”

Father Rebeiro told Crux Now his office also helped students clear institutional hurdles, providing them with official Church endorsements. The Commission also furnished standardized toolkits packed with practical Laudato Si’ action plans, interactive student pledges, and native saplings for hands-on planting drives.

Rebeiro also “got his hands dirty” with the student-volunteers, to say it with the late Pope Francis.

“I am right there with them in the field,” Rebeiro told Crux Now, “anchoring their environmental activism in pastoral care with commissioning blessings while setting up a national digital tracker to amplify their daily impact and honor their unit’s dedication.”

“I am incredibly proud of our BCSM youth for stepping out into schools and colleges this June to champion Pope Francis’s message of Laudato Si’ and ignite a love for Mother Earth,” Rebeiro also said.

He told the young people he hopes they will use the days of the campaign “to boldly remind [their peers that caring for God’s creation is a core Christian duty.”

“I pray that your zeal becomes a prophetic spark that heals our communities and honors the Creator,” Rebeiro told the young people.

World Environment Day occurs globally on June 5, 2026, and is hosted by Azerbaijan in its capital city, Baku. The international community is focusing on climate action as the central theme this year, highlighting the need for rapid adaptation to climate-driven events and environmental protection.

Bangladesh’s geography and low-lying delta topography make the country and its people especially vulnerable to climate disasters. The riverine and coastal environment is inherently dynamic, and communities have developed traditional practices to function, by and large, within these shifting landscapes.

But climate change has amplified and altered the nature of these pressures and created new ones. Alongside more intense tropical cyclones, floods and droughts, sea level is rising faster than the global average, destroying people’s health, lives and livelihoods.