Celebrate 5th Anniversary of Laudato Si’ with a Special Anniversary Year (24 May 2020 – 24 May 2021)

Monday, June 01 2020

On 24 May 2015, Pope Francis signed the encyclical Laudato Si’: On the Care for Our Common Home, which called upon not only Catholics all over the world, but the entire global community to recognize how every person is profoundly connected and dependent on one another, as well as on the natural world in which we all live.

To honour the anniversary of this encyclical, the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development has launched the celebration of a Special “Laudato Si’ Anniversary Year” which runs from 24 May 2020 until 24 May 2021.

For more information about the anniversary year, as well as a program of planned activities to take place throughout 2020 and 2021, download the program from Google Drive at: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1IsUe2wDB9DZgStdwciG-g_a8_kLySdkR or visit the Dicastery’s website at: http://www.humandevelopment.va/en/news/laudato-si-special-anniversary-year-plan.html

One of the planned initiatives is the Season of Creation which will take place from 1 September 2020, the World Day of Prayer for Creation, until 4 October 2020, the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi. The Season of Creation is an annual ecumenical event that encourages prayer and action for our common home. For more information, visit seasonofcreation.org.

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (CCCB) 2017 document entitled Living Out Laudato Si’: A Commentary and Practical Resource for Canadian Catholics may be a useful resource to assist in further reflections on the significance of Laudato Si’ during this special year. The document is organized into six chapters, each based on one of the six chapters of the encyclical, and concludes with a series of reflection questions and resources for action, organized under the headings See, Learn, Pray, Act.