On Oct. 4, 2022, the docufilm “The Letter,” created by the Laudato Si’ Movement, was presented at the Vatican.  It offers a perspective of how to act for the good of our “common home” and is now available for free on Youtube Originals in 12 languages. Arouna Kandé is a young Senegalese student born in a small village who used to work on a farm with goats and chickens but because of the gradual destruction of the environment the young Muslim was forced to leave the village. The young man explains how rising sea levels in the coastal town of Saint-Louis have already forced thousands of people to leave their homes. “My family in Senegal,” he says, “has done nothing to cause the drought in our village or the flooding in the city. We are being affected by the choices made by other people. However, the future is coming, it is mine, and I will make good use of it.” In the docufilm “The Letter,” presented by the Laudato Si’ Movement, of which the Focolare Movement is a partner, Arouna Kandé’s story is intertwined with the stories of Brazilian indigenous chief Cacique Odair Dadá Borari, 14-year-old Indian activist  Ridhima Pandey, the Asners – an American couple, both marine biologists, and Irish woman Lorna Gold, all of whom are extremely active in safeguarding the environment. With a personalised letter leaving the Vatican and being delivered to each of them, a journey begins through their own lives until they return to the Vatican where Pope Francis engages in a dialogue with them in an atmosphere of intimate confidence and deep listening. Finally, the action moves to Assisi, to places made famous by St. Francis. There, Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa offers a unique perspective for understanding the Franciscan roots of the message behind the Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’, dedicated by Pope Francis to care of the common home. The film was presented at the Vatican on 4 October, on the feast of the saint of Assisi, in the presence of its protagonists, director Nicolas Brown and his team along with the producers. In the Synod Hall, Arouna Kandé explained the importance of raising awareness of these issues. He spoke of schools being washed away by the waters and hundreds of boys having nowhere dry to rest, forced to sleep on their feet for days. The boy told of moving to a coastal town where the sea level is rising. He has not given up: he is now a university student and is setting up a new NGO to lead the next era of sustainable development in his country. Arouna is thus witnessing to the thousands of people who have firsthand experience of the climate crisis and have the knowledge to solve it. Ridhima Pandey, a 14-year-old Indian high school student, who has also participated in demonstrations to hold governments accountable for their climate action. She founded an NGO to help young women become climate activists. Ridhima said that future generations of young people will be the ones who suffer from global land abuse and neglect. “Our generation – the young people – is and will be the most vulnerable.” “The Letter” is a film to be watched in families, communities and schools because the message each of the protagonists receives is directed to every person on the planet enabling us to realise that we can all do our small or large part to care for “our common home” as Pope Francis calls it in Laudato Si’. The film will be available on Youtube Originals on 2 November 2022 in 12 different languages.

Carlos Mana

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rps9bs85BII