October 5, 2023

A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts. www.catholicnewsagency.com - Pope Francis in his opening remarks for the Synod on Synodality on Wednesday offered guidance to participants on how the monthlong assembly will proceed. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255577/new-grammar-of-synodality-on-display-at-start-of-synod-gathering Pope Francis on Wednesday released a new document on the environment that he has described as the “second part” of his 2015 encyclical Laudato Si', and which warns of “grave consequences” if humanity continues to ignore the threat of climate change. The apostolic exhortation, titled Laudate Deum (“Praise God”), is meant to address what Francis in the document calls the “global social issue” of climate change. The pope said that in the eight years since Laudato Si’ was published, “our responses have not been adequate” to address ongoing ecological concerns. “Climate change is one of the principal challenges facing society and the global community,” the pope wrote in the document, arguing that its effects are borne by the world’s “most vulnerable people” and that the climate issue is “no longer a secondary or ideological question.” Francis wrote that the effects of climate change “are here and increasingly evident,” and warned of increasing heat waves and the possible melting of the polar ice caps, which he said would lead to “immensely grave consequences for everyone.” Laudate Deum’s publication date — October 4 — is the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi, from whom Francis drew his pontifical name at the start of his papacy in 2013. It is also the start date of the first monthlong assembly in Rome of the ongoing Synod on Synodality. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255563/in-new-exhortation-pope-warns-of-climate-change-our-responses-have-not-been-adequate The state of Florida executed a convicted murderer on Tuesday evening after