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The foundational encyclical of Pope Francis on the environment — and on the essential moral duty of men and women to “care for creation” — was Laudato Si’ (“Praised be (you, my Lord)…”), published more than 10 years ago, on May 24, 2015. The encyclical has been praised as prophetic, but also criticized as flawed and even in places simplistic, attributing to the action of men environmental changes due to nature itself. So, the encyclical’s teaching deserves study, and this study may bring further development in the years to come. In any case, here is how the text begins:
- “LAUDATO SI’, mi’ Signore” – “Praise be to you, my Lord.” In the words of this beautiful canticle, St. Francis of Assisi reminds us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us. “Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with coloured flowers and herbs.”
- This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will. The violence present in our hearts, wounded by sin, is also reflected in the symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air and in all forms of life. This is why the earth herself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor; she “groans in travail” (Rom 8:22). We have forgotten that we ourselves are dust of the earth (cf. Gen 2:7); our very bodies are made up of her elements, we breathe her air and we receive life and refreshment from her waters.
- More than 50 years ago, with the world teetering on the brink of nuclear crisis, Pope Saint John XXIII wrote an Encyclical which not only rejected war but offered a proposal for peace. He addressed his message Pacem in Terris to the entire “Catholic world” and indeed “to all men and women of good will.” Now, faced as we are with global environmental deterioration, I wish to address every person living on this planet. (…)
- In 1971, eight years after Pacem in Terris, Blessed Pope Paul VI referred to the ecological concern as “a tragic consequence” of unchecked human activity: “Due to an ill-considered exploitation of nature, humanity runs the risk of destroying it and becoming in turn a victim of this degradation.” He spoke in similar terms to… the United Nations about the potential for an “ecological catastrophe under the effective explosion of industrial civilization,” and stressed “the urgent need for a radical change in the conduct of humanity”…
- St. John Paul II became increasingly concerned about this issue. In his first Encyclical, he warned that human beings frequently seem “to see no other meaning in their natural environment than what serves for immediate use and consumption.” Subsequently, he would call for a global ecological conversion. At the same time, he noted that little effort had been made to “safeguard the moral conditions for an authentic human ecology.” The destruction of the human environment is extremely serious, not only because God has entrusted the world to us men and women, but because human life is itself a gift which must be defended from various forms of debasement. Every effort to protect and improve our world entails profound changes in “lifestyles, models of production and consumption, and the established structures of power which today govern societies.” (…)
- My predecessor Benedict XVI, likewise… asked us to recognize that the natural environment has been gravely damaged by our irresponsible behaviour…
With paternal concern, Benedict urged us to realize that creation is harmed “where we ourselves have the final word, where everything is simply our property and we use it for ourselves alone. The misuse of creation begins when we no longer recognize any higher instance than ourselves, when we see nothing else but ourselves.”
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