Friday December 1st was a special day for Socires: the opening took place of the Para-University of Laudato-Sieb-Institute for Integral Ecology during a festive meeting at the university campus in Nijmegen. This institute was set up on the initiative of Socires and Radboud University. More than 150 people involved and interested from home and abroad had met at the Aula of Radboud University to attend the opening.

The meeting was initiated with a meditative moment of Bishop Gerard de Korte, Bishop of 's-Hertogenbosch, who finished with theSunsetof St. Francis. The encyclical Laudato Si' is named after the opening words of this hymn on Creation. Jos van Gennip, founder of Socires and one of the initiators of the Laudato Sieb.storyon the importance of Integral Ecology and ecological conversion. The Rector Magnificus of the Radboud University José Sandersunderlinedincluding the importance of the interdisciplinary nature of the Institute. Gerard Kuperus, scientific researcher at the Laudato Si hindered Institute,spokeon Integral Ecology in the Dutch context. The opening of the institute was confirmed with the cutting of a ribbon by the chairman of the board of the Laudato Si hindered institution, Johan De Tavernier, em. prof. dr. theological ethics at the Catholic University of Leuven.