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Don Bosco Provincial House, Hyderabad, 09 July 2020: The province of St Joseph, Hyderabad hosted a webinar for all the confreres in the province on 9th July 2020 at 6.00 pm. The speaker was Fr Dasari Nireekshan sdb, from the Laudato Si’ commission set up by the province. He began the webinar with an introduction presenting the reason why Pope Francis chose the title “Laudato Si’ for his encyclical on environment, taking inspiration from the Canticle of the creatures of St Francis of Assisi.
Pope Francis shows how Laudato Si’ is animated by the spirit of St Francis of Assisi, patron saint of those who promote ecology, and emphasizes the importance of these spiritual roots: “If we approach nature and the environment without this openness to awe and wonder, if we no longer speak the language of fraternity and beauty in our relationship with the world, our attitude will be that of masters, consumers, ruthless exploiters, unable to set limits on their immediate needs. By contrast, if we feel intimately united with all that exists, then sobriety and care will well up spontaneously” (§11).
Fr Nireekshan presented the summary and the essence of all the six chapters in two hours. He delved into the chapters viz., 1. What is happening to Our Common Home, 2. The Gospel of Creation, 3. The Human Roots of the Ecological Crisis, 4. Integral Ecology, 5. Lines of Approach and Action, 6. Ecological Education and Spirituality. The foremost objective of the webinar was to help all the confreres to understand the encyclical and provoke and exchange ideas at the province level on the urgent need to address the ecological crisis in the current COVID-19 context. This is in view of drawing up plans towards creation of a sustainable world for everyone ensuring a radical shift of the dominant economic system towards a more just and sustainable paradigm where the economic, health, social, environmental crises are not addressed in silos but as one crisis.
This webinar is the first of the several online seminars and meetings planned for this year on the theme of care for our common home and its inhabitants. These webinars are envisaged on every first Monday and on every first Thursday of the month. Subsequently, Fr Thathireddy Vijaya Bhaskar, Provincial, thanked the speaker Fr Nireekshna, Fr Jose D Maliekal and the team for the initiative of the webinar for the Salesians in the province.
