10 Links on the Pope’s Encyclical on Creation

Last updated on: June 18, 2015 at 1:33 pm by Kathryn Jean Lopez

10 Links on the Pope’s Encyclical on Creation 2015-06-18T13:33:32-05:00 Kathryn Jean Lopez

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1. Archbishop Charles J. Chaput writes:

From the start of his papacy, this Holy Father has tried to model St. Francis’ simplicity and joy. And just as St. Francis treasured the beauty of the world as a mirror of God’s love, so Pope Francis seeks to protect its beauty as a good steward. That desire to protect, along with a keen sense of justice, is the spirit behind this encyclical.
Laudato Si is a wide-ranging and detailed text. It includes an unusual level of scientific analysis and policy recommendations. Climate change and economic development play key roles in the document’s content. This will invite discussion.
What’s essential is this: Vital truths about human nature, the nature of creation, the human “will to power” and its impact on the environment, are laced throughout Laudato Si. Pope Francis develops the teaching of his predecessors, from John XXIII to John Paul II, with persuasive skill. One of the Pope’s best lines is borrowed from Benedict XVI: “The external deserts of the world are growing because the internal deserts [of our hearts] have become so vast.”

But my favorite passage comes directly from Pope Francis himself:
“If we approach nature and the environment without [a spirit of] openness to awe and wonder, if we no longer speak the language of fraternity and beauty in our relationship with the world, our attitude will be that of masters, consumers, ruthless exploiters, unable to set limits on their immediate needs … The poverty and austerity of St. Francis were no mere veneer of asceticism, but something much more radical: a refusal to turn reality into an object simply to be used and controlled” (11).

Laudato Si speaks eloquently of inter-generational solidarity; the beauty of the family; the dishonesty of population control as an answer to poverty; the broad duties of rich nations to those that are poor; and the dignity of the human body in its God-given masculine and feminine forms. “It is not a healthy attitude,” Pope Francis writes, “which would seek to cancel out sexual difference because it no longer knows how to confront it.”

2. For the Holy Father, a humane ecology includes much more than our treatment of the material world. It involves our bodies, our sexuality and our personhood as well.

Here's my take: Pope Francis’ Encyclical Is About More Than Climate Change. It’s About Culture. http://t.co/zYQ5966MON @DailySignal

— Ryan T. Anderson (@RyanTAnd) June 18, 2015

#Pope Francis: "In the family we first learn how to show love and respect for life" #LaudatoSi pic.twitter.com/DaaVIYgf2A

— Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) June 18, 2015

"Following a period of irrational confidence in progress and human abilities, some… are now adopting a more critical approach" #LaudatoSi

— Fr. Thomas Petri, OP (@petriop) June 18, 2015

Interesting that #LaudatoSi is not actually addressed to anyone, as encyclicals have been in the past. Just a letter "of the Holy Father"

— Fr. Thomas Petri, OP (@petriop) June 18, 2015

"The Pope calls for an “ecological conversion” that recognizes that “the world is God’s loving gift”. Christian… http://t.co/dyRx1pXnLK

— Aid to the Church (@acn_canada1) June 18, 2015

In #LaudatoSi it turns out the Pope is a Catholic, says @SSBullivant http://t.co/VRAIWo3udF pic.twitter.com/ivSPZeiyX3

— Catholic Herald (@CatholicHerald) June 18, 2015

8. Archbishop Gomez on Laudato Si’ and gratitude.

A theological illustration for #encyclical #LaudatoSi : https://t.co/KUy5y7Uudv

— Sara Parvis (@CatholicSara) June 18, 2015

10. More links here.

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