“Our Future on a Shared Planet” Conference

On November 4, “Our Future on a Shared Planet: Silicon Valley in Conversation with the Environmental Teachings of Pope Francis” is a conference sponsored by Santa Clara University open to the campus and to the surrounding community in the Bay Area and beyond. In June, Pope Francis released the encyclical called “Laudato Si” (“Praised Be”) on the environment and the global challenge of climate change. The document is unprecedented in the long history of Catholicism and offers a rich opportunity to create a dialogue among many actors (religious, scientific, economic, business, political, and more) around one of the great issues of our time. Attendees may register for this full-day conference for $25 at www.scu.edu/popefrancis

The event’s opening liturgy will be held on November 3 with Cardinal Peter Turkson and is open to the public at no cost. Turkson, a Ghanian Cardinal who is president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, is widely acknowledged as one of the most influential Vatican experts on the content of the historical encyclical, Laudato Si’, on the environment and the crisis of climate change.