LAUDATE DEUM: A Last Call for the Planet event

An international gathering marking the conclusion of a Course on Integral Ecology is being held by zoom on Thursday 27 June 2024. It will, last one and a half hours and all are welcome.

On 4 October 2023, Pope Francis released Laudate Deum: the apostolic exhortation on the climate crisis. Writing eight years after the publication of Laudato Si' - the landmark encyclical letter on the care for our common home, in which he invited all people of good will to "a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet" (Laudato Si', 14), Pope Francis issued a serious warning to humanity: "Eight years have passed since I published the Encyclical Letter Laudato Si', when I wanted to share with all of you, my brothers and sisters of our suffering planet, my heartfelt concerns about the care of our common home. Yet, with the passage of time, I have realized that our responses have not been adequate, while the world in which we live is collapsing and may be nearing the breaking point." (Laudate Deum, 2).

Francis' words appear even more relevant today! On 5 June - World Environment Day - the report of the European Commission's Copernicus Climate Change Service stated that May 2024 was the hottest May in recorded history! Commenting on this report, António Guterres, the United Nations Secretary General remarked: "We are at a moment of truth. The truth is … almost ten years since the Paris Agreement was adopted, the target of limiting long-term global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is hanging by a thread. … We are playing Russian roulette with our planet. We need an exit ramp off the highway to climate hell. And the truth is… we have control of the wheel. The 1.5 degree limit is still just about possible."

The natural world has been sending us numerous warnings in the language ofdroughts and floods, hurricanes and wildfires in recent times. More than 1,000 pilgrims perished in the recent heatwave that struck Saudi Arabia, while China is currently battling drought in the northern region and floods in the south. Mexico was recently battered by the tropical hurricane Alberto, while heavy rains caused widespread flooding in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul a few weeks ago.

It is in this context of unprecedented threat to life and human civilization that the online international conference: "Laudate Deum: A Last Call for the Planet" will take place on 27 June 2024 13.30 to 15.00 hrs CEST (12.30 - 2pm UK time).

The conference marks the conclusion of the Course on Integral Ecology organized by the Alliance for the Care of Our Common Home (Pontifical Universities & Atheneums of Rome). The conference will seek to understand and respond to the climate crisis with the help of a distinguished and international panel of scientists, activists, scholars, faith leaders and youth and indigenous leaders. The event is jointly hosted by the Salesian Pontifical University in Rome and Partnerships For Change in San Francisco.

Here is the link to the Conference Programme: https://bit.ly/3KT59XH

The Conference is OPEN TO ALL! Please join us on Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7652053630?omn=82878905599 Meeting ID: 765 205 3630 or YouTube : www.youtube.com/@jdei-jointdiplomainecologi9433