Francis of Assisi Academy 

for Planetary Health

The Saint Francis Academy (FAA) is an academic organization, founded 1995 as a specifically Christian contribution to the European Nature Conservation Year (ENCY 95)  at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt. Formally the academy is an association of the Christian faithful (CIC Cann. 298) under german law. 

The  Academy works on regional, european and global level. In 2020, a comprehensive evaluation and strategy discussion for reorientation an restart took place. Unfortunately, because of Corona, the 2020 Assembly for the 25th anniversary of the foundation had to be cancelled.

In the future, the Academy will focus on the promotion of Planetary Health and in particular as a think tank for Planetary Health in the Catholic Church, Ecumenism and World Religions (see new mission). As a first measure, the Academy's Enabaling Team decided to rename the Academy to "Francis of Assisi Academy for Planetary Health (FAA-PH)". The Constitution of the Academy will be modified accordingly until the next General Assembly.

The Planetary Health approach is fundamentally not new. The Academy developed an initial prototype for Planetary Health Education at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt in the 1990s. We understand Planetary Health holistically, in the sense of "integral ecology" as health for the earth deeply interdependet with the health of the the human family. 

The work was inspired by the ENCYCLICAL LETTER LAUDATO SI’of Pope Francis, the ENCYCLICAL FRATELLI TUTTI and the ENCYCLICAL LETTER UT UNUM SINT and the central documents of the  European Ecumenical Assemblies in Basel (1989), Graz (1997) and Sibiu (2007).

The Academy is a founding member of the European Christian Environmental Network (ECEN); member of the Laudato Si Movement and the Planetary Health Alliance.