Laudato Si’ Conference photo courtesy of Patrick Nicholson

An international conference took place on July 5-6, 2018 in Vatican City to celebrate the third anniversary of Laudato Si’, Pope Francis’ letter on care for our common home. The conference aimed to communicate “a sense of deep urgency and profound concern for the precarious state of our common planetary home”. The Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development organized the conference in collaboration with partners such as the Global Catholic Climate Movement. Representatives of churches, religions, civil society, scientists, politicians, economists, grassroots movements, and others gathered to dialogue and develop some participatory lines of action.

Laudato Si’ Conference photo courtesy of Patrick Nicholson

On the second day participants focused on how to inspire a massive movement for the care of our common home. One of the lines of action developed to help inspire this massive movement is to “engage the faithful in the celebration of the Season of Creation with other Christian churches, to motivate radical conversion and transformative action”. The ecumenical Season of Creation runs from September 1^st to October 4^th, the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, and invites Christians around the world to pray and care for creation.

The speech by Pope Francis is available here. Watch this very short inspiring video by the Vatican which gives an overview of the conference: 

If you would like to learn more, the Laudato Si’ Conference website has several resources including recordings of the conference sessions. Many of the presentations of individual speakers are better viewed on the YouTube channel of the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.