 with succinct, albeit poetically…){kind=link}
In the papal encyclical Laudato Si’ published 2015, Pope Francis focused on care for our common home (Earth) with succinct, albeit poetically woven, thoughts that pleasantly surprised the Christian world, impacted global politics especially on the raging climate crisis, and struck a common chord with the environment movement.
On his passing day after Easter, this highly praised work comes to mind again as one of the beloved pope’s legacies to a world gone mundane, divisive, and destructive.
[W]e see a person less from the supremacy and pomp of the pontificate, as when officiating mass and blessing his flock from the St Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, but as a man of Argentinian country roots bleeding for both the abused creation and the poor excluded in the comforts and other benefits of development.
KEY POINTS OF LAUDATO SI
Pope Francis makes a strong personal stand on the environment and prescribes right human and institutional responses. Key points of his beliefs:
- Interconnectedness of all things, including the social, economic, and environmental aspects of life.
- Disproportionate impact on the poor of an ecological crisis.
- Integral ecology approach needed that considers the environmental, social, and economic dimensions of life.
- Ecological conversion: transformation of hearts and minds, change in lifestyle, a commitment to caring for the environment.
- Critique of the ‘technocratic paradigm” that prioritizes economic growth at the expense of human dignity and the environment.
- Solidarity and social justice as development considerations.
- Swift and unified global action to address the environmental crisis by all people of good will.
In such encyclical, we see a person less from the supremacy and pomp of the pontificate, as when officiating mass and blessing his flock from the St Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, but as a man of Argentinian country roots bleeding for both the abused creation and the poor excluded in the comforts and other benefits of development. Very green, may I add.
A PRAYER FOR THE EARTH
The encyclical concludes with this prayer penned by Pope Francis, with an excerpt below:
“All-powerful God, you are present in the whole universe
and in the smallest of your creatures.
You embrace with your tenderness all that exists.
Pour out upon us the power of your love,
that we may protect life and beauty.
Fill us with peace, that we may live as brothers and sisters, harming no one.”