A Dialogue on Laudato Si’

This article is also published in New City

This conversation is now also available in Italian in the Nuova Umanita’ magazine (243)

The EcoOne online conference – New ways towards integral ecology –  took place from 23rd to 25th October 2020 looking at the legacy and the impact of pope Francis’ encyclical letter Laudato Si’ at five years since it realise.EcoOne is the ecological and cultural initiative of the Focolare Movement striving to bring into ecology a humanistic and spiritual dimension.

The conference which connected live around 400 people from all over the world in five simultaneous translations (English, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Hungarian) brought together the work of academics, professionals and grassroot supporters active in environmental sciences.

The environmental crisis represents undoubtly one of the most urgent and critical problems of our time. Pope Francis in his encyclical letter Laudato Si’ has emphasized the need «to enter into dialogue with all people about our common home (LS 3)». Moving from that large horizion and challanged by the COVID19 situation, through the event were offered high level academic insights as well as a range of tools and testimonies about how we can make an impact in the current ecological emergency.  

During the conference I chaired a fascinating session on ecology and interfaith. The webinar entitled “A Dialogue on Laudato Si’” wanted to offer a focus on the role that people of faith can play in addressing climate change and all its devastating consequences by leading the change. In particular, we explored how Christianity, Islam and Hinduism can help bring back into the ecological discourse the element of the sacred that is very much at the heart of Laudato Si’.

On this special panel we had three three very distinguished guests from different religious traditions, three personal friends and friends of the Focolare, who are active in promoting the protection of the environment moving from a spiritual vision of the natural world: Dr. Mohammad Ali Shomali (UK), the Director of International Institute for Islamic Studies in Iran andof the Risalat International Institute in the United Kingdom. Rev. Dr. John Chryssavgis (US), archdeacon and theological advisor on environmental issues to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Costantinople. Mr. Gopal D. Patel (US),director of Bhumi Global – a Hindu NGO working to promote environmental care and action and also co-chair of the UN Multifaith Advisory Council.

For me personally it was a fascinating and enchanting dialogue which helped me realized once more the deep spiritual significance of nature and how that can help us motivate a much-needed ecological and anthropological conversion and promote a new ecological culture.

In Laudato Si’ the pope appeals «for a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet», and urges to open «a conversation which includes everyone, since the environmental challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect us all» (LS 14).

The one-hour-long webinar that is now available online on the EcoOne YouTube channel (https://youtu.be/CDKqt6oquZI) is packed with wisdom and spiritual insights.

I would like to highlight just a few passages from our conversation that stuck with me personally.

Dr. Shomali emphasized right at the beginning our shared responsibility as people of faith in protecting our common home and the need to work together. He also offered a very clear indication on how we can do that by reminding us that in order to dialogue «we need conversation and conversion».

A special mention throughout the webinar was made to the role that His All Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew has played in the context of ecology. Rev. Chryssavgis – who is the theological adviser on environmental issue to the Patriarchate of Costantinople – reminded us of our spiritual mandate to promote the protection of creation. In the very words of the Patriarch «the very life of the Church is an applied ecology» (message for the World Day of Creation last 1^st Sept 2020).

Mr Gopal Patel who has recently coordinated at the United Nations a Multifaith Advisory group of faith-based organisations consulting the UN on the environment stressed the importance of religions in the context of ecology among other things said «we need to make space to grieve at what we have done to the world. (…) We have to be able to hold that grief, and transform it into positive action, to give hope that things can get better».

Our conversation converged on the fact that science alone is not sufficient to get us out of the crisis and that we need wisdom. Laudato Si’ has a beautiful passage about this reminding us that ‘rather than a problem to be solved the world is a joyful mystery to be contemplated with gladness and praise’ (LS 12).

Laudato Si’ emerged really as a universal invitation to care for nature and for one another, and that in doing that we have to seek wisdom, creativity and love. The word ‘love’ is actually used in the text around 70 times so as to indicate a path on which everyone is invited to walk. Only by ‘being love’, in fact, humanity can restore that gaze on herself and on the rest of creation to rediscover that gold thread of love that is between all beings.

As Chiara Lubich beautifully puts it:

On earth everything is in a relationship of love with everything else: each thing with each thing. But we need to be Love in order to find the golden thread of love between beings

Lubich, C., 1997a, Scritti spirituali /1, Città Nuova, Rome