On 13 November 2025, Italian television channel 2 aired a wonderful report on Eco-Charity Garden as part of the programme “Tutto il bello che c’è” (All the beauty there is): the TeleGiornale 2 cameras captured all the beauty of the park at the General House of the Sisters of Charity of Saint Giovanna Antida Thouret in Rome
The report was edited by th journalist Cinzia Terlizzi. After visiting us last summer, she was enchanted by the celebration of Mass in Creation held in the Eco-Charity Garden and decided on that very occasion that she wanted to make a television report in the park.
In the film, the journalist describes the activities very well, starting with the eco-spiritual paths and ending with the celebrations, while showing the entire park: the paths, the hill of San Vincenzo, the centuries-old trees, the plants, the flowers, the Lourdes grotto, the fountains and the sculptures.
In the introductory part, she alternates wonderful views of the park with interviews with volunteers and the Sister in charge of the project, to help viewers understand their ecological mission.
The interviews clearly show the organisational team’s desire to offer visitors an opportunity to begin a possible process of individual and community ecological conversion.
The process starts with a contemplative gaze at Creation and its creatures.
The contemplative gaze should allow us to look at Creation with curiosity and wonder, so that we can grasp the hand of God who created everything with love and goodness. Thus, a first stage of divine revelation is recognised, consisting of the wonderful “book of nature”, which, when read with the tools of human reason, can lead to knowledge of the Creator.
When we discover that everything is governed by harmony, perfection and supernatural order, we marvel at divine artistry and immediately feel joy in finding meaning in our existence, because we feel part of the whole.
When we realise that Creation is a gift received from the love of the Father, we begin to feel the desire to give thanks by saying a prayer of praise, as St Francis of Assisi did in the Canticle of the Creatures. St Francis believed in the ‘mediating’ function of creatures, which allows human beings to rise, through praise, to the Supreme Good.
From reading and meditating on the Encyclical Laudato sì, we can gain an awareness of our role as custodians of the Common Home that God has entrusted to us. As we read in Genesis: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to cultivate and keep it.”
At the end of each eco-spiritual journey, but also during Mass, we try to become ‘painfully aware’ of the damage caused to the planet and to have ‘the courage to realise the reality of a limited and finite world.’
In this way, from the contemplation of natural beauty, we move on to an awareness of the ecological sin that human beings are committing against Creation. The cry of the earth and of the poor thus provokes personal suffering, and the awareness of the urgency of this socio-environmental crisis determines the need to act.
If we succeed in feeling a deep desire to care for our Common Home and all the brothers and sisters who inhabit it, including future generations, we can say that we have achieved our ecological conversion.
This process of ecological conversion, in order to transform itself from individual to communal, must include listening to others, reaching out of ourselves and seeking the common good together.
In this way, we become aware of a common origin, a mutual belonging and a future shared by all. This basic awareness can lead to the development of new convictions, new attitudes and lifestyles.
The film ends with images of the Mass in Creation, which aims to draw attention to the two sacred books: the book of Nature and the book of the Bible.
This feature is highlighted by images showing the participants in the Mass walking in Creation for 7 minutes during the Mass, reading the book of Nature by observing, listening, touching and contemplating everything around them.
We would like to thank Paolo Feliciello for the photographic reportage of the garden of the General House.
