Chennai (India). On 26 October 2021, the students of the Second Level Secondary School of the Fatima Matriculation of Kodambakkam, Chennai, of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians of the Province of St. Thomas the Apostle (INM), gave life to a performance on themes related to the Encyclical Laudato Si’ of Pope Francis on the care of the common home.
The music band and the School leaders opened the event by parading in front of the invited authorities. Through music, song, mimes, and dance, the young people presented a reflection entitled: “Vision for a common home: earth and humanity”, in the presence of the Minister of Scholastic Instruction of the State of Tamil Nadu and to a public comprised of students and parents, past pupils, teachers, and other invited guests including priests, religious, government and education functionaries, and benefactors.
Using mime as a performing art, they represented with creativity and depth, the seven Objectives of Laudato Si’ (OLS) for integral ecology: response to the cry of the earth, response to the cry of the poor, ecological economy, adoption of simple lifestyles, ecological education, ecological spirituality, emphasis on community involvement, and active participation. The negative effects of consumerism, environmental degradation, and global warming were highlighted, with the invitation to undertake “effective and united global action”, to pave the way for greater results in the care of the common home for future years.
Through artistic beauty and harmony of movements, the young women passionately conveyed a message on the importance of protecting the environment and promoting the sustainable development of the planet for future generations, to protect health and safety in the long term of human beings, plants, and animal species of the ecosystem and to educate to ecological responsibility.
The Minister of Education congratulated the students for the realization of the performance and thanked the Principal, teachers, and School staff of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians for the effectiveness of the educational commitment in instilling awareness and a sense of responsibility towards the environment. He also expressed his intention to keep in mind the seven objectives presented, in his personal life and in his public mandate in the field of education.
The event ended with a concrete gesture by the Minister, who planted small trees on the school campus and gave a small tree to each member of the school’s Educating Community and to the past pupils, to be planted in the gardens of their homes or places of work.
“A good school education in childhood and adolescence plants seeds that can produce effects throughout life” (Pope Francis – LS 213).
