And Now, The Main Event

Even if folks on all sides are whipped up and more on this Eco-cyclical Eve, for our purposes, all that matters is actual news: after a yearlong ramp-up, the schedule for tomorrow's release.

At 11am Rome (5am Eastern/2 Pacific/0900 GMT), the traditional pub-day press conference begins in the Vatican's Synod Hall, its venue moved from the usual Press Office to accommodate a far larger crowd. Upon its start, a livestream of the event will run here, with the video subsequently available on-demand.

Featuring the late addition of Carolyn Woo, the Baltimore-based president of the US' Catholic Relief Services, to the speakers' panel alongside the Holy See's social justice chief Cardinal Peter Turkson, the Orthodox theologian Metropolitan John of Pergamon (representing the Patriarchate of Constantinople), and the German climate-change expert John Schellnhuber, while the session is likely to be heavily in English, whatever isn't will be translated in real time, as well as into Italian, French, Spanish and German.

An hour later – Roman Noon (6am ET/3 PT/1000 GMT) – brings the publication of Laudato Si' itself, translated into eight languages (including, for the first time on a release day, Arabic). The links to the complete text will appear here upon release... and, to be sure, in the possible if not probable event of a crash of the Vatican website, backup plans are ready to go.

From there, the rest of the day 'round these parts will be taken up with the briefings and reactions set to flood in from top prelates across the spectrum... then a brief breather before the release of the "other" major text that's been intensely awaited over recent months: the instrumentum laboris (principal working document) for October's Ordinary Synod of Bishops on the family – the most consequential Vatican event of 2015 – which the Holy See announced this morning will come next Tuesday, the 23rd.

See you early, folks – til then, all that remains is bracing for an eventful day... and, indeed, just another reminder that these pages only keep coming your way by means of your support:

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