“When Pope Francis declared last year that we would celebrate the Fifth Anniversary of the Encyclical and invited us to live the Laudato Si’ Year, the campaign came at an auspicious moment”.
(Francis Wong, OFS – JPIC Nicaragua)
In July 2020, motivated by the campaign for the Laudato Si’ Revolution a movement begun – courtesy of a conversation via WhatsApp – involving the brothers and sisters of the JPIC commissions of the Franciscan Family in Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa and Haiti. According to Fray Samuel, JPIC promoter of the Province of the Holy Gospel in Mexico, “it was great being able to work as Spanish -speaking countries …. it was a big challenge to meet; obviously virtually, for reasons of the pandemic, a big challenge but a good work.
The group began to be quickly set up, within a short time there were around 50 people involved and they organized and created a plan to bring forward the Laudato Si’ Revolution, divided into three stages. All the organisation of the plan was done by virtual meetings. In September, together with the beginning of the Season of Creation the first stage called “Awareness Building” was launched. This proposed three initiatives: “Festival of Photography”, “Festival of Drawing” and “Festival of Good Practice”. They were widely supported: 240 drawings, 154 photos and 15 videos of good eco-friendly practice. You can download the ebook and the 2021 calendar which were produced from this material.
The second stage was prepared by around 20 people and was carried out in November and December. 6 thematic forums were offered online, which treated of the COVID-19 pandemic, eco-theology from a Franciscan viewpoint, migration and the ancestral peoples as guardians of creation. “It was an experience which united our horizons and made them more shared and hope-filled”, commented A. Victoria López in YouTube during the transmission of the summary of the forums. All the forums can be viewed HERE.
At the moment we are in the third stage which began with the webinar “Combining the Stages”. During the month of February the next activities will be carried out; these aim at putting into effect what was seen and reflected on in the previous stages. “We cannot live on the margin of reality, we are called to pause and reflect and respond to the cries of the present moment”, comments Fr. Anselmo. We invite you to join in the next forum on “Extractivism” on Saturday 27 February at “20.00 (Mexico/Central America on Facebook or our channel in YouTube.
