A photo exhibition named “Changes” was opened on Tuesday in the colonnade of St. Peter’s Basilica designed by Bernini. This cultural event is organized by the Dicastery of Communication of the Holy See in cooperation with the Dicastery of Promotion of Integral Human Development. The exhibition will be on display until May 27 of this year.
Silvija Krivteža – Vatican
The social encyclical “Laudato sì” signed by Pope Francis on May 24, 2015, in which the main focus is on caring for our common home, is inspired by the “Song of Creation” composed by Saint Francis of Assisi. In the coming weeks, pilgrims coming to the Vatican will be able to see a photographic interpretation of this song – the photo exhibition “Changes”.
The exhibition is curated by the Italian film director Lea Beltrami and her daughter Marianna. The photographs in the exhibition show the contrasts of climate change and the human emotions evoked by the beauty of God’s creation. The works were also exhibited at the UN Climate Conference in Dubai at the end of last year.
The exhibition features twenty-four large-format photographs, accompanied by quotations from Saint Francis’ Song of Creation, highlighting the tension between the beauty of creation and the devastation caused by climate change, which affects both the environment and people’s lives around the world. The exhibition is an encouragement to reflect on what measures need to be taken so that in the face of social and environmental crisis we can praise God with the same determination as Saint Francis did. In this case, the title of the exhibition “Changes” refers both to climate change and its dramatic consequences, and to the call to change our lifestyle, so that we can say together with St. Francis: “Praise be to you, my Lord!”
