Pope Francis’ encyclical “Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home,” published on Thursday, is a global game changer.
It’s not only that the pope accepts the scientific consensus that climate change is real and significantly caused by humans. To climate-denying, top American Catholic politicians, the gig really is up.
Nor is it only that there has never in the history of Catholicism been an authoritative document as focused on the sacred, moral character of the natural world. Many in the Bay Area think we live in a spirit-filled natural world; Pope Francis does, too.
But it’s also that the encyclical, addressed to all people, not just Catholics, lays out a comprehensive critique of our climate crisis and a compelling vision for how to move ahead. Like reading a prophet from the Hebrew Scriptures or a book like Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring,” you can’t go home again and think the same way.
Here are some of the hard questions that linger.
First, who is my neighbor? The encyclical abhors the fact that the impacts of climate change (increasing heat waves, heavy precipitation, more intense droughts, worsening coastal flooding) are disproportionately borne by the poorest three billion people on the planet. The document demands that all countries come together to transition rapidly to renewable energy sources.
At an individual level, our technologically savvy culture provides appealing solutions, like the solar panels on a roof charging an electric vehicle in the driveway. While individual actions are a piece of the puzzle, the Pope calls us to much more. We need to drop an infatuation with GDP alone and work toward “a framework that links economic prosperity with both social inclusion and protection of the natural world,” as one of the key drafters of the encyclical said in a speech. It is our obligation to ensure that those suffering from the consequences of global warming pollution, and who had little to do with causing it, can develop sustainable systems of energy and food production.
Second, can we hear the cry of the Earth? One of the most striking points of the document is that human beings have a relationship with the natural world governed by the norms of justice. In speaking of the now-suffering Earth, the pope invokes the familial phrasing penned by his namesake, Francis of Assisi, to underscore this point: “Be praised, my Lord, through our sister Mother Earth, who feeds us and rules us … Be praised, my Lord, through brothers Wind and Air … .”
The pope also asks that “we listen to the cry of the Earth as much as we listen to the one of the poor.” A theology that values solidarity with nature and replaces older Christian teachings that emphasized dominion over the Earth is nothing short of a paradigm shift.
Third, why should we care for our common home? For Pope Francis, the divine origin of the world is the reason religious people should care about the Earth. He is clear, too, that many nonreligious people have profound motives for caring for the Earth.
But the document as a whole raises important questions in this regard and opens up many possibilities for dialogue. How well do the motives and values behind the technological ingenuity of Silicon Valley align with the challenge of our climate crisis? What motives should prompt our engagement and can sustain the wholesale change — Pope Francis calls it the “cultural revolution” — demanded by this time?
The encyclical of Pope Francis has opened up a conversation on all of these matters. The care of our common home is at stake.
The authors are from Santa Clara University: David DeCosse, director of campus ethics programs at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics; Edwin Maurer, associate professor of civil engineering; John Farnsworth, senior lecturer in environmental studies and sciences. They wrote this for this newspaper.
