Pope Francis’ Encyclical Laudato Si is a worldwide wake up call to help humanity understand the destruction that man is rendering to the environment and his fellow man. While addressing the environment directly, the document’s scope is broader in many ways as it looks at not only man’s effect on the environment, but also the many philosophical, theological, and cultural causes that threaten the relationships of man to nature and man to each other in various circumstances. This document is in many ways the epitome of Pope Francis. It is an unexpected topic. It presents Gospel truths. And, it provides a challenge for every believer (and non-believers too).
Laudato Si is Pope Francis’ Encyclical on the environment or more formally –
On Care for Our Common Home. Laudato Si means “Praise be to you” which is the
first line of a canticle by St. Francis that praises God with all of his
creation.
From the outset, Pope Francis states the goal of the document:
“In this Encyclical, I would like to enter into dialogue with all people about
our common home” (#3).
Normally, papal documents are addressed to the bishops of the
Church or the lay faithful. But, similar to Pope Saint John XXIII’s Pacem
in Terris, Pope Francis address his message to all people.
The goal of the dialogue: “I urgently appeal, then, for a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet. We need a conversation that includes everyone, since the environment challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect us all” (#14). The above is at the heart of the document, but Pope Francis also has a very striking call to conversion for those in the Church as well.
“The ecological crisis is also a summons to profound interior conversion. It must be said that some committed and prayerful Christians, with the excuse of realism and pragmatism, tend to ridicule expressions of concern for the environment. Others are passive; they choose not to change their habits and thus become inconsistent. So what they all need is an ‘ecological conversion’, whereby the effects of their encounter with Jesus Christ become evident in their relationship with the world around them. Living our vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or a secondary aspect of our Christian experience” (#217) (bold mine).
Summary quote of this chapter’s message: “But a sober look at our world shows that the degree of human intervention, often in the service of business interests and consumerism, is actually making our earth less rich and beautiful, ever more limited and grey, even as technological advances and consumer goods continue to abound limitlessly. We seem to think that we can substitute an irreplaceable and irretrievable beauty with something which we have created ourselves” (#34).
Summary quote of this
chapter’s message: “We are not God. The
earth was here before us and it has been given to us…. Although it is true that
we Christians have at times incorrectly interpreted the Scriptures, nowadays 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.
The biblical texts are to be read in their context, with an appropriate
hermeneutic, recognizing that they tell us to ‘till and keep’ the garden of the
world (cf. Gen 2:15). ’Tilling’ refers to cultivating, ploughing or working,
while ‘keeping’ means caring, protecting, overseeing and preserving. This
implies a relationship of mutual responsibility between human beings and
nature. Each community can take from the bounty of the earth whatever it needs
for subsistence, but it also has the duty to protect the earth and to ensure
its fruitfulness for coming generations” (#67)
Summary quote of this chapter’s message: “It can be said that many problems of today’s world stem from the tendency, at times unconscious, to make the method and aims of science and technology an epistemological paradigm which shapes the lives of individuals and the workings of society. The effects of imposing this model on reality as a whole, human and social, are seen in the deterioration of the environment, but this is just one sign of a reductionism which affects every aspect of human and social life. We have to accept that technological products are not neutral, for they create a framework which ends up conditioning lifestyles and shaping social possibilities along the lines dictated by the interests of certain powerful groups” (#107)
Summary quote of this chapter’s message: “We urgently need a humanism capable of bringing together the different fields of knowledge, including economics, in the service of a more integral and integrating vision. Today, the analysis of environmental problems cannot be separated from the analysis of human, family, work related and urban contexts, nor from how individuals relate to themselves, which leads in turn to how they relate to others and to the environment” (#141).
Summary quote of this chapter’s message: “Interdependence obliges us to think of one world with a common plan. Yet the same ingenuity which has brought about enormous technological progress has so far proved incapable of finding effective ways of dealing with grave environmental and social problems worldwide. A global consensus is essential for confronting the deeper problems, which cannot be resolved by unilateral actions on the part of individual countries.” (#164)
Summary quote of this chapter’s message: “In calling to mind the figure of Saint Francis of Assisi, we come to realize that a healthy relationship with creation is one dimension of overall personal conversion, which entails the recognition of our errors, sins, faults and failures, and leads to heartfelt repentance and desire to change” (#218).