Pope to Laudato Si' Centre for Higher Education: Let's safeguard God-given Creation

By Deborah Castellano Lubov

The human family must guard what has been entrusted to it by its Creator, Pope Francis suggested on Thursday, 19 September, to a delegation from the Laudato Si' Centre for Higher Education.

As noted on its website, the Centre has the task of offering the world "a tangible and replicable sign of the principles" contained in the Pope's landmark 2015 Encyclical on the environment Laudato Si'.

A journey with many fruits

The Holy Father said he wished to take the opportunity to recall with gratitude the journey that has been made thus far.

"To make visible and concrete the will to promote ecological conversion, I thought of creating a tangible model of thought, structure, and action, which I named Borgo Laudato Si’," he said, noting he had considered that the properties and dependencies of the Villas of Castel Gandolfo "were the right space" to host this kind of "laboratory," where the formative contents can be tested.

For this purpose, at the beginning of 2023, he established the Laudato Si' Centre for Higher Education as a scientific, educational, and social activity body.

To empower it best, he suggested, it is endowed with its own patrimonial, technical, administrative, and accounting independence and "operates for the integral formation of the person within the scope of sustainable economy," and according to the principles of the Encyclical.

Intense work

In the months following its establishment, the Centre for Higher Education, the Holy Father commended, began working to develop the "Borgo" project.

Assisted by high-level national and international experts, the Center outlined the project's three main guidelines, which are inclusive education in integral ecology, circular and generative economy, and environmental sustainability.

"After months of intense work," he stressed, "the Board of Directors of the Advanced Training Center presented me with the result: it is a complex and multifaceted project, which covers various aspects of integral ecology."

In this context, the Holy Father said that one of the essential elements is agriculture.

"In Borgo Laudato Si,’ he explained, agriculture "aims to stand out for its sustainability and diversification, investing in infrastructures, irrigation systems, and the development of agricultural techniques that respect the ecosystem and biodiversity."

Aimed for excellence and safeguarding

The project for Borgo also includes the development of a new vineyard for wine production, which "aims to be a synthesis of tradition and innovation, a "trademark" of the Borgo."

For this too, he said, the Centre for Higher Education has relied on the advice of some of the leading experts because the intention is to aim for excellence.

"I was particularly pleased," he expressed, "that both for cultivation and agricultural production—especially the vineyard—a significant amount of labor is planned."

"This aligns," he said, "with the agreed intention at the outset to work towards the restoration of good and fruitful relations between the human family and Creation through work that takes care and guards what has been entrusted to us by the Creator.

Integral Ecology

Addressing those before him as "friends," the Pope said he wished to express his gratitude to all who, in different ways, are collaborating on this important project.

"I am sure," Pope Francis reassured, "that the result of this collaboration will well represent the principles of integral ecology that I wanted to highlight in the Encyclical Laudato Si’ and in the Apostolic Exhortation Laudate Deum."