On Pentecost Sunday, May 28, the closing of Laudato Si’ Week took place with a live celebration from the Canticle Garden in Assisi, Italy. There, local Bishop Domenico Sorrentino and Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Pontifical Council for the Laudation of the Blessed Sacrament, presided. Michael Czerny, Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, presided over the celebration with a missionary send-off of Laudato Si’ Animators from around the world.
Live from the Shrine of St. Kateri Tekakwitha in Fonda, New York, Christina Leaño, Laudato Si’ Movement Associate Director, facilitated the celebration encouraging people from around the world who also connected online from various regions.
Bishop Sorrentino began with a reflection in which he called the Laudato Si’ Animators to go throughout the world and announce the Good News of Laudato Si’. “We are aware of the problems of daily life and confronting these problems is only possible through the power of the Holy Spirit,” he said.
“What is missing to overcome the adversities of our time?” he asked and said, “Our personal involvement, and to be able to understand that our life and the life of creation are not only a political problem but also a moral problem and we need the strength of the Spirit of God.”
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After the penitential act and Gospel readings, Card. Czerny offered a reflection to the animators and the entire audience: “How encouraging it is to see so many Laudato Si’ Animators and other pastoral agents so committed to proclaiming the one and only Gospel, which sends us to care for our common home and to care for those-especially the poor–who inhabit it now and in the future,” he said.
Stating that he also considers himself a Laudato Si’ Animator, he said, “Each of you has been called to give a response to the message of Laudato Si’. We, filled with the Holy Spirit, have a mandate to go out and proclaim the amazing generosity of God’s Creation.”
Afterwards, the Laudato Si’ Animator send-off took place, in which they were asked, “Do you accept the responsibility to listen to the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor and the humble leadership that Laudato Si’ and the Holy Spirit ask of you?” “Yes, we accept,” responded the Animators present in Assisi and through the online chat who participated from different corners of the world.
At the conclusion of the celebration, the community of Assisi offered a final gesture and the Bishop of Assisi especially commended the path towards 2025, when the 10th anniversary of the encyclical Laudato Si’ and the 800th anniversary of the Canticle of Creatures will be celebrated, coinciding with the inauguration of the Laudato Si’ Citadel.