All month, Christians around the world have been creating a “home for all” during the ecumenical Season of Creation, which runs until 4 October. Those efforts will shift this week to focus on climate refugees ahead of global events that will mark the 107th World Day of Migrants and Refugees, which is Sunday 26 September.
The theme of the day is, “Towards an ever greater ‘we’.” Pope Francis called on everyone to recognize that “we are all in the same boat.”
His Holiness said that our ability to care for migrants and refugees, including those displaced because of the climate crisis, will affect how we care for God’s creation.
“In order to ensure the proper care of our common home, we must become a ‘we’ that is ever wider and more co-responsible, in the profound conviction that whatever good is done in our world is done for present and future generations,” Pope Francis said.
Since 2019, natural disasters have displaced nearly 35 million people around the world as the climate crisis has worsened.
Scientists have made clear that warmer ocean water, holding more water vapor, is likely to create stronger hurricanes. And extreme weather patterns, including droughts, landslides, historic floods, and wildfires, are more likely in a warming world.
The Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development will showcase the incredible stories of three climate migrants during a special Laudato Si’ Dialogue on Sunday.
The event will also feature Cardinal Michael Czerny, SJ, Under-secretary of the Vatican’s Migrants and Refugees Section; Massimo Fusarelli, OFM, Minister General of the Order of Friars Minor; and Tomás Insua, Executive Director of Laudato Si’ Movement.
The Laudato Si’ Dialogue will be held at the San Francesco a Ripa church in Rome and be broadcast live on YouTube and Facebook.
Season of Creation around the world:
- Communities are coming together to host prayer services centered around Abraham’s tent and their commitment to create a home for all this month.
- In Washington, D.C., Father Cornelius Ejiogu held a Laudato Si’ Mass aimed at drawing real commitments from parishioners in the U.S. capital.
- In Kenya, Catholics are supporting Pope Francis by gathering signatures for the “Healthy Planet, Healthy People” petition ahead of two crucial United Nations summits.
- Ahead of the 107th World Day of Migrants and Refugees, climate migrants share their moving stories of survival and the need for the simplest things in God’s creation: trees.
THIS WEEK
Pope Francis: ‘Towards an ever wider ‘we’’
Live from Rome on Sunday, the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, climate migrants will share their moving stories and highlight the relationship between the worsening climate crisis and migration. This Laudato Si’ Dialogue also will feature ways people can help climate migrants.
WHO
- Cardinal Michael Czerny, SJ, Under-secretary of the Vatican’s Migrants and Refugees Section
- Massimo Fusarelli, OFM, Minister General of the Order of Friars Minor
- Tomás Insua, Executive Director of Laudato Si’ Movement
- Three climate migrants
WHEN
Sunday 26 September
8:00 Quito / 9:00 New York / 10:00 Brasilia / 15:00 Rome / 16:00 Nairobi
