During these days (1st to 3rd October 2025) the Raising Hope Conference in Rome facilitated by the Laudato Si’ Movement and its partner organisations, has brought together representatives of the human family – global leaders, faith communities, progressive business leaders and frontline voices – to take stock of where we are and build a shared vision of our future.
A decade after Pope Francis published Laudato Si’— his seminal letter ‘to all people on the planet’ that awakened the world to the moral urgency of the climate crisis, this coming together was an opportunity to unite to reflect on the impact of Laudato Si’ and to celebrate what has been achieved, but also to chart bold pathways for action.
The programme reflected the diversity of participants and was designed to enable all to fully take part. See Programme Here
We are seeds of a new future
During a session at Day 2 of the conference one of the speakers contributed this chant joined in by the entire hall: “we are seeds of a new future”!
The opening keynote address was by Pope Leo at the Mariapolis Centre (Castel Gandolfo, outside Rome) on Wednesday, 1st October 2025. You can read the full text Here
As we commemorate the tenth anniversary of the Encyclical Laudato Si’ on care for our common home …. The challenges identified in Laudato Si’ are in fact even more relevant today than they were ten years ago. These challenges are of a social and political nature, but first and foremost of a spiritual nature: they call for conversion. As with every anniversary of this nature, we remember the past with gratitude, but we also ask ourselves what remains to be done.
The Pope continued, that we need to arrive at what must be done now, to ensure that caring for our common home and listening to the cry of the earth and the poor does not appear as a mere passing trend or, worse still, that the issues identified are seen as being divisive. The Apostolic Exhortation Laudate Deum, published two years ago, noted that “some have chosen to deride” (no. 6) the increasingly evident signs of climate change, to “ridicule those who speak of global warming” (no. 7) and even to blame the poor for the very thing that affects them the most (cf. no. 9).
Return to the heart
Pope Leo said that besides spreading the message of the Encyclical ten years on, it is now more important than ever to return to the heart.
In Scripture, the heart is not only the centre of feelings and emotions, but the locus of freedom. Although the heart includes reason, it transcends and transforms it, influencing and integrating all aspects of the person and his or her fundamental relationships.
The heart is the place where external reality has the greatest impact, where the deepest searching takes place, where the most authentic desires are discovered, where one’s ultimate identity is found, and where decisions are formed. It is only by returning to the heart that a true ecological conversion can take place.
We must shift from collecting data to caring; and from environmental discourse to an ecological conversion that transforms both personal and communal lifestyles. For believers, this conversion is in fact no different to the one that orients us towards the living God. We cannot love God, whom we cannot see, while despising his creatures. Nor can we call ourselves disciples of Jesus Christ without participating in his outlook on creation and his care for all that is fragile and wounded.
Dear friends, let your faith inspire you to be bearers of the hope that comes from recognising the presence of God already at work in history. Let us recall how Pope Francis described Saint Francis of Assisi: He “lived in simplicity and in wonderful harmony with God, with others, with nature and with himself. He shows us just how inseparable the bond is between concern for nature, justice for the poor, commitment to society, and interior peace” (Laudato Si’, 10). May each of us grow in these four relationships — with God, with others, with nature and with ourselves — through a constant attitude of conversion. Integral ecology thrives on all these relationships. Through our commitment to them, we can grow in hope by living out the interdisciplinary approach of Laudato Si’ and the call to unity and collaboration that flows from it.
An appeal for unity around an integral ecology
We are one family, with one Father, who makes the sun to rise and sends rain on everyone (cf. Mt 5:45). We inhabit the same planet, and we must care for it together. I therefore renew my strong appeal for unity around integral ecology and for peace! It is encouraging to see the variety of organisations represented at this conference, as well as the wide range of organisations that have joined the Laudato Si’ Movement and the Platform for Action.
Moreover, Pope Francis emphasised that “the most effective solutions will not come from individual efforts alone, but above all from major political decisions on the national and international levels” (Laudate Deum, 69).
Everyone in society, through non-governmental organisations and advocacy groups, must put pressure on governments to develop and implement more rigorous regulations, procedures and controls. Citizens need to take an active role in political decision-making at national, regional and local levels. Only then will it be possible to mitigate the damage done to the environment. Local legislation will also be more effective if neighboring communities support the same environmental policies (cf. Laudato Si’, 179).
It is my hope that the upcoming international summits of the United Nations — the 2025 Climate Change Conference (COP 30), the 53rd Plenary Session of the Committee on World Food Security, and the 2026 Water Conference — will listen to the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor, families, indigenous peoples, involuntary migrants and believers throughout the world.
At the same time, I encourage everyone, especially young people, parents and those who work in local and national administrations and institutions, to play their part in finding solutions for today’s “cultural, spiritual and educational challenges” (Laudato Si’, 202), always striving tenaciously for the common good. There is no room for indifference or resignation.
I would like to conclude with a question that concerns each of us.
God will ask us if we have cultivated and cared for the world that he created (cf. Gen 2:15), for the benefit of all and for future generations, and if we have taken care of our brothers and sisters (cf. Gen 4:9; Jn 13:34). What will be our answer?
Dear friends, I thank you for your commitment and I happily extend to all of you my blessing. Thank you.
See Laudato Si’ Movement (Catholics for Our Common Home): Here
See Laudato Si’ Platform for Action (Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development): Here
See Raising Hope Conference – 1 to 3 October 2025: Here
