Pilgrimage for Siena College and Its’ New Laudato Si’ Center for Integral Ecology

On April 11-20, 2024, Friar Michael LASKY helped lead a pilgrimage tour in Italy for a group of friars and members of the board of directors of Siena College in Loudonville, New York, USA.

The pilgrims visited Siena, La Verna, Assisi, Greccio, and Rome. One of the friars on the pilgrimage was Friar Michael PERRY, OFM, the former Minister General of the Friars Minor. He has recently become the first director of Siena College’s new Laudato Si’ Center for Integral Ecology.
The friars at Siena College are building a national network among the twenty-two Franciscan universities in the United States, to promote the values elaborated in Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’. This fall, the friars will begin to reach out to Franciscan schools of higher learning in Africa (Democratic Republic of the Congo); Asia (Vietnam); Latin America (Colombia and Brazil); and the Antonianum University in Rome. The goal is to create an international Franciscan network based on the principles of Laudato Si’.
The April pilgrimage helped the members of the board of directors to become better acquainted with Franciscanism and Catholic social teaching. Some special highlights of the pilgrimage included the first ever “Sunset Experience” at the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome. The evening began with a private after-hours tour of the basilica where Friar Michael LASKY explained the apse mosaic, which is a meditation on St. Francis of Assisi’s Canticle of the Creatures in the context of Franciscan Mariology. This was followed by an aperitif on the terraces along the roof of the basilica, which offered a view of the sun setting over St. Peter’s Basilica in the distance. The evening ended with a catered dinner in the Hall of the Popes. The following morning, and the last day of the pilgrimage, we were blessed to have private audience with Pope Francis in the Vatican.
Everyone on the pilgrimage very much appreciated the kind and generous hospitality of Friar Alfred PARAMBAKATHU and the friars at the Basilica of St. Francis in Siena; Friar Marco MARONI and the friars at the Sacred Convent in Assisi; and Friar John VOYTEK and the friars at the Vatican Penitenzieria.

Friar Michael LASKY

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