Reflections on Laudato si’ – Part II
Andrew Conradi, Langford, BC
Volume 38 Issue 10, 11, & 12 | Posted: December 27, 2023
August 21: The Director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni: reported Pope Francis was writing a second part of his Laudato si’ encyclical to update it to “current issues”. No information on when the letter will be issued was given. Matteo Bruni, explained that the new updated version of Laudato si’ will focus in particular on the most recent extreme weather events and catastrophes affecting people across five continents.
Hungarian President Katalin Novák, who spent 45 minutes alone with Pope Francis at the Vatican 25 Aug., told an Italian newspaper that the document will be published 4 Oct, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi and the close of the Season of Creation.
“He told me he is working on writing a new encyclical, a new edition of Laudato Si’ and it will be published Oct. 4,” Novák told Il Messaggero in an interview published 26 Aug. “The first encyclical was promulgated in 2015 and since so many things have changed a bit since then, he told me there was a need to update it. Alongside the issues already covered there will be others, new ones, but we did not go into too much detail.”
30 August 2023, Pope confirms ‘second Laudato Si will be an apostolic exhortation.
In time for the 2023 celebration, the Vatican Philatelic and Numismatic Office published the designs it has chosen for stamps drawing attention to the U.N. Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. They are very “Laudato Si’,” which is the opening phrase of St. Francis of Assisi’s Canticle of Creation.
The new stamps feature a watercolour by Franciscan Father Giuseppe Murdaca, pastor of the Church of St. Francis of Assisi in Reggio Calabria, Italy.
The words, “Laudato il Signore Opere Sue” (”Praise the Lord, all his works”), are in the center of the painting, surrounded by water, a dove, the sun, the moon and a lamb walking on green fields.
Andrew Conradi, Langford, BC