Visitors to Vatican City on Tuesday night saw more than the usual light display at St. Peter’s Basilica. For one night, the Basilica was the backdrop of an hour-long light show to highlight climate change. Colorful birds, seals, clownfish, dolphins, coral reefs, and various people from around the world were some of the projections screened on the Basilica, as The Guardian shows in a photo essay.

 

Multiple humanitarian organizations organized the show, called Fiat Lux (Let There Be Light): Illuminating Our Common Home, and accompanied the images with nature sounds, including thunder and bird songs, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported. The light show is reminiscent of a similar event in New York City earlier this year, where endangered animals were projected onto the facade of the Empire State Building.

 

This isn’t the first time the Pope’s advocated for climate change awareness. He issued an encyclical — the second most authoritative form of papal address — in June outlining the Catholic Church’s concerns over climate change. He stressed science’s support for climate change being largely the result of humans and said it was imperative to address it. "We must forcefully reject the notion that our being created in God’s image and given dominion over the earth justifies absolute domination over other creatures," he wrote, and said caring for the "garden of the world" requires a "relationship of mutual responsibility." (The Verge)