Pope Francis received the Laudato Si’ Movement in a private audience.
This morning, a delegation of the Laudato Si’ Movement, led by Dr. Lorna Gold, president of the Laudato Si’ Movement and Tomás Insua, Executive Director of the movement, met with the Holy Father Francis.
They were accompanied by Father Joshtrom Kureethadam of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development.
The 75-minute meeting was also attended by Indigenous leaders, such as the Cacique Dadá Borari of the Amazon, the prestigious environmental scientist Greg Asner, who was the first to map the illegal deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon, and other leaders from different regions.
The meeting with the Holy Father, the first since the movement’s name change last month, focused on dialogue and collaboration between the Church and other sectors of society, particularly those on the peripheries, to respond urgently to the ecological crisis.
This added momentum to the Healthy Planet, Healthy People petition and other projects in collaboration with the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development, such as the Laudato Si’ Action Platform.
Dr. Lorna Gold was moved by the meeting in which the Pope helped “us to really tease out what it means for us now to move from being the Global Catholic Climate Movement to the Laudato Si’ Movement, which embraces many different parts of humanity and care for our common home.”
The Pope making time for such a meeting was a very encouraging gesture for the movement, as Laudato Si’ Movement faces this next stage.
WATCH: Dr. Lorna Gold shares what it’s like to meet with Pope Francis
Pope Francis was, as usual, inviting and generous with his time, and he also was concerned about the precarious situation our common home is enduring, and the latest scientific reports that warn of the worsening climate crisis.
The struggle of the indigenous peoples, present at the meeting.
Providentially, the meeting took place just 24 hours after thousands of indigenous people marched through the streets of Brasilia, claiming their land rights to the Brazilian Supreme Court.
After the meeting, Cacique Dadá Borari, indicated that Pope Francis expressed all of his support in the struggle of the native peoples of the Brazilian Amazon and showed his availability to help in whatever was necessary.
WATCH: Cacique Dadá Borari shares Pope Francis’ message of hope for the Amazon