The Catholic Church and world remain far removed from ecological vision of Pope Francis

President Michael D Higgins recently marked the Irish launch of a thought-provoking new film The Letter – A Message for our Earth with a special event in Áras an Uachtaráin.

The feature-length documentary was written and directed by award-winning nature director, Nicolas Brown – and produced by Oscar-winning company Off the Fence. It features Pope Francis in a heartfelt, and at times heart-wrenching, dialogue with environmental activists, youth and scientists from different parts of the world affected most by climate injustice.

Together they explore the reality of climate change and how it is impacting each of their lives, leaving little room for doubt about the crisis the world is facing and the urgency of the response required.

I had the privilege of having a front-row seat in the making of the film and was part of the dialogue with the Pope, thanks to my role as chair of the Laudato Si Movement – the burgeoning global network which has emerged since 2015 to promote ecological conversion in the Catholic Church.

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The creation of a dialogue on climate change is something Pope Francis has called for throughout his pontificate. The idea of the film came about through a deep desire on the part of the Laudato Si Movement, and key groups involved such as Trócaire, to realise such a dialogue and to make more visible the unheard voices in the current discourse on the climate crisis

Through a long process of exploration (it has taken four years to produce the film from start to finish) the production team landed on four “voices” who are systematically overlooked in considerations of the climate crisis to bring them into the heart of the global debate through film.

There are of course many unheard voices, but those captured in The Letter reflect groups that truly are invisible to us in the Global North – and who hardly enter our thinking when it comes to climate policy and action. These are the voices of youth and future generations; climate refugees fleeing poverty; indigenous peoples; wildlife and disappearing ecosystems.

Through my advocacy work with Trócaire over 20 years I saw first-hand how these voices are ignored. In bringing the four voices together, and interweaving their stories, the film helps to make the big issue of climate change real and deeply personal.

As I say at one point in the film: “once you know, you cannot look away”. The film helps connect this crisis to our deepest sense of humanity.

One moment that stands out for me in the making of this film was a moving encounter between those representing the different ‘voices’ and Pope Francis in Rome. Having listened carefully, the Pope retold the story of the Tower of Babel and interpreted it for the current times. He talked about the “economic arrogance” the world is captured by right now and the failure to see the impact of this on humans who are forced to work as “slaves”. Meanwhile “nature is screaming ... stop”.

The Pope turned to the group assembled in the room and realised he was deep in thought, speaking from his “Spanish heart”. Then, one by one, he called us into a purposeful unity in which each ‘voice’, each person has a role, “like in a choir”. He ended by saying: “Right now, unity means saving mother Earth, saving ourselves and saving our children.”

It is a clarion call to collective action, leaving nobody out.

This film comes seven years after the Pope published his encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si. Much has been achieved in those seven years in terms of ecological conversion in the Catholic Church – including the creation of the Laudato Si Action Platform which celebrated its first anniversary this month.

And yet the Church and world remains far from the ecological vision of the Pope. How many priests preach about this on Sundays? Many are still reluctant to embrace the scientific reality or centrality of the “cry of the earth and the poor”. The dream is that this film will reboot Laudato Si for a much wider audience.

In the words of Dr Greg Asner, a world-renowned scientist who features in the film, “The ecological message of Pope Francis deserves to be heard far beyond the Catholic Church, by everyone.”

Lorna Gold is chair of the Laudato Si Movement

Community screenings of `The Letter – A Message for our Earth’ are under way around Ireland, supported by Trócaire and other groups. The film is free to view at TheLetterFilm.org Details on how to host a local screening are on the website