The event entitled "Feast of St. Francis in the Vatican Gardens: Celebration of the Season of Creation and Consecration of the Synod at St. Francis", which will begin at 12.30 p.m., is held today in the Vatican Gardens.
The ceremony, promoted by the Order of Friars Minor, the REPAM and the Global Catholic Climate Movement, will be attended by the Holy Father, together with Cardinals Peter K.A. Turkson, Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, Lorenzo Baldisseri, Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops, and Claudio Hummes, President of REPAM.
The ceremony will include the planting of a tree from Assisi as a symbol of integral ecology, to entrust the Synod for the Amazon to St. Francis, who is "the example par excellence of care for the vulnerable and of an integral ecology lived out joyfully and authentically" (Laudato Si', 10). The event will also be a good opportunity to celebrate the "Season of Creation" which the Holy Father recently promoted and which is coming to an end today. The ceremony will include the participation of representatives of indigenous peoples of the Amazon, Franciscan friars and various representatives of the Church.