Vatican opens photographic exhibition on effects of climate change

Vatican Dicastery for Communications prefect Paolo Ruffini and Vatican Secretary-General Sister Raffaella Petrini inaugurate the photographic exhibition titled “Changes” on May 7, 2024, in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. / Credit: Elizabeth Alva/EWTN News

ACI Prensa Staff, May 10, 2024 / 15:15 pm (CNA).

A photographic exhibition titled “Changes” opened this week in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, showcasing the effects of climate change and the creative work of God.

The Dicastery for Communication explained in a press release that this exhibition makes reference to St. Francis of Assisi’s  “Canticle of the Creatures,” also known as the “Canticle of the Sun.” The exhibition aims to show “the contrasts of the effects of climate change” as well as “the hope that the emotions engendered by the creative work of God give.”

The exhibition was developed as part of the project “Emotions to Generate Changes” and will be open to the public through May 27.

Taking part in the initiative were the Dicastery for Communication in collaboration with the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and the Laudato Si’ Higher Education Center.

The words to the “Canticle of the Creatures” accompany the 24 photographs, with a reference to Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation on the climate crisis, Laudate Deum.

The selected photos, according to the organizers, present a contrast “between the beauty and wonder of creation and the destruction of climate change, both for our environment and for people around the world.” 

The Dicastery for Communication further stated that this initiative “aims to reflect on the actions that must be undertaken to praise God in the same powerful way as St. Francis in a time of socio-ecological crisis.”

The name “Changes” refers “both to climate change and its impacts, which we are experiencing with increasing intensity, and to the challenge of changing our perspective and our actions,” the press release stated.

The photographs come from Borneo, Bangladesh, Togo, Ethiopia, Amazonia, Florida, Greece, Italy, Iceland, Australia, and Turkey and are mounted on supports made from wood recovered after the 2018 Vaia storm that heavily damaged forests in the Italian province of Trento.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.