Pope Francis and the Laudato Si' encyclical
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can explain the message of Laudato Si’ and how it calls people to care for our common home responsibly.
Key learning points
- Laudato Si' is the name of Pope Francis' encyclical on caring for the planet.
- An encyclical is a public letter from the Pope developing Catholic teaching on a topic often in light of current events.
- The encyclical begins by quoting St Frances of Assisi, who is the parton saint of animals.
- It includes seven key areas of focus which cover poverty, the environment, education and spirituality.
Keywords
Common home - the Earth we share and must look after
Ecological conversion - changing how we live to care better for the Earth
Throwaway culture - treating people, the planet, and relationships as disposable
Common misconception
The Roman Catholic Church is only focused on Catholics and personal morality.
This encyclical is addressed to the whole world as Pope Francis saw that all the world was a common home for everyone.
Teacher tip
The Cafod website has some beautiful animations of the encyclical that could be shown. The Laudato Si' centre in Manchester has more detail about their work.
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
5 Questions
Q1.What does stewardship mean in religious teachings?
Q2.What did Mary Midgley argue about humans and nature?
Q3.What is a khalifah in Islam?
Q4.What is Tikkun Olam in Jewish teaching?
Q5.What is dominion in the Judeo-Christian tradition?
Assessment exit quiz
5 Questions
Q1.Match the key words to their definitions.
public letter from the Pope developing Catholic teaching
changing how we live to care better for the Earth
treating people, the planet, and relationships as disposable
Q2.Pope Francis wrote Laudato Si’ to encourage us to care for our common ...
Q3.What does Laudato Si’ connect care for the Earth with?
Q4.What was Laudato Si’ inspired by?
Q5.The Catholic Church only cares about Catholics and personal morality.
To help you plan your 9 religious education lesson on: Pope Francis and the Laudato Si' encyclical, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 9 religious education lesson on: Pope Francis and the Laudato Si' encyclical, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 3 religious education lessons from the Changing world: How should the Earth's resources be used? unit, dive into the full secondary religious education curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.