The recent Dubai Climate Summit (COP28) has painfully demonstrated that we continue to remain largely deaf to the growing “cry of the earth” and “the cry of the poor” (Laudato Si', 49). Time is running out. Can we still wake up to the gravity of the existential threat to life and civilisation on this planet we call home?
The unprecedented challenge that the planet and people face can only be tackled from the perspective of an integral ecological vision that Pope Francis offered in Laudato Si'. Rebuilding our common home and our common human and biotic family requires an alliance between all members of our family and all segments of society. It is in the spirit of this prophetic mission that the Roman Pontifical Universities and Athenaeums came together immediately after the publication of Laudato Si' to launch a Joint Diploma in Integral Ecology. "On the seventh anniversary of this collective and fruitful effort" they write from the Pontifical Salesian University (UPS) in Rome, "we are pleased to announce the launch of the English edition of this initiative that will be offered online, in collaboration with numerous important groups engaged in the area of care for creation."
The Integral Ecology Course, entitled "Course on Integral Ecology: from Laudato Si' to Laudate Deum", will consist of six modules of 90 minutes each that will be held from January to June 2024 (every third Thursday of the month from 1.30 pm to 3.00 pm CEST/GMT+1), together with an international online conference on Laudate Deum that will be organised in May 2024. Online registration for the course will open in December 2023 and on request, at the end of the programme, participants will receive a certificate of participation.
The Course will be run by an international community of qualified scholars, leaders and activists in the field of care for creation, from Rome's Pontifical Universities and Athenaeums and from around the world.
For more information, you can visit the UPS website, while for online registration, the form is available at the following page: http://immatricolazioni.unigre.it
