"The Letter,” the Laudato Si Film screened at the COP27

"The Letter" a documentary based on Pope Francis' encyclical, was screened at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP27), by the Laudato Si Movement, the Vatican delegation, and the Senegalese government on November 10, 2022. It took place at COP27's Blue Zone in the Government of Senegal Pavilion.

COP 27, the UN Climate Change Conference, is taking place from 6 to 18 November 2022 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

At the UN Climate Change Conference (COP27), countries come together to act towards achieving the world’s collective climate goals as agreed upon under the Paris Convention and Agreement. Building on the momentum of COP 26 in Glasgow last year, nations are expected to demonstrate that they are in a new era of implementation of their Paris commitment.

The Letter tells the story of the Pope’s call to care for our planet. The film tackles the double challenge of climate change and the decline of biodiversity.

"The Letter" concentrates on significant issues such as how poor nations are more affected by the problem than other regions, how faith and science may coexist, and how crucial it is to examine the climate catastrophe from a Catholic perspective.

Pope Francis claims in the film that conversing with people from various backgrounds is "like a chorus," where everyone must sing in unison. We all must sing. And right now, unity means preserving Mother Earth, preserving biodiversity, and preserving ourselves and our children. Unity is now saving Mother Earth, biodiversity, and our own and our children's lives.”

Before the film was shown, Archbishop Nicolas Henry Marie Denis Thévenin, the Apostolic Nuncio to the Arab Republic of Egypt, had a roundtable conversation with Fra. Angel Cortez, OFM, the representative of the Franciscan Delegation, and with other representatives of Catholic organizations.

In the conversation, Archbishop Thévenin underlined that "The Letter" will encourage those attending COP 27 to set a higher moral standard for what they wish to accomplish in order to cut fossil fuel emissions.

In 2015, Pope Francis wrote Laudato Si’  an encyclical letter about the environmental crisis to every single person in the world.

A few years later, four voices that have gone unheard in global conversations have been invited to an unprecedented dialogue with the Pope. Hailing from Senegal, the Amazon, India, and Hawai’i, they bring perspective and solutions from the poor, the indigenous, the youth, and wildlife into a conversation with Pope Francis himself.

This documentary follows their journey to Rome and the extraordinary experiences that took place there and is packed with powerfully moving personal stories alongside the latest information about the planetary crisis and the toll it is taking on nature and people.

In the words of the Laudato Si’ Movement chair Lorna Gold, “once you know, you cannot look away.”

The documentary produced by Oscar-winning Off the Fence Productions and presented by YouTube Originals was released on Oct 4, the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, a day which also marked the Holy See’s official entry into the Paris Agreement on climate change

In the end, the voices of the poor, native people, young people, and animals can be heard throughout the movie. The COP 27 will test governments' capacity to address how urgent this situation is as well as their ability to incorporate the perspectives of those who have witnessed and experienced environmental catastrophes into their discussions.