AS THE FATE of the world hangs in the balance, one humble pastor—leader of the world’s smallest nation-state—offers a word. Well, closer to 40,000 words.
Pope Francis’ much awaited social teaching on ecology was released in June to global acclaim and thunderous Twitterapplause. Laudato Si’ (“Praised Be to You”) takes its name from a line in St. Francis of Assisi’s “The Canticle of the Creatures,” written in 1225. The encyclical lays out the house rules for this earthly commons we share—archaea, bacteria, and eukaryota alike. (Google it. You, me, all the fauna and flora, are part of eukaryota.) So, what do you need to know?
1. The news is not good. The world’s leading spiritual physician has diagnosed “every person living on this planet” with a progressive and degenerative disease. A soul sickness has spread through us to infect the soil, seas, skies, and even the seasons. Among humans, the poorest have the least resistance and the richest are the major vectors. This disease multiplies in isolation and loneliness, with symptoms of obsessive consumption, greed and corruption, and habitual narcissism. “The external deserts in the world are growing, because the internal deserts have become so vast.”
2. This disease is having dire consequences: objectification of the other, a failure of awe in the presence of beauty, and a defiance of reality by those who claim the “invisible forces of the market will regulate the economy” and dismiss the impact on society and nature as “collateral damage.” Our family home—the one our children will inherit—looks “more and more like an immense pile of filth.”
3. Some will respond to this drastic diagnosis with “obstructionist attitudes”: denial, indifference, resignation, or blind confidence in technology. But followers of Jesus Christ believe “the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations,” and the Spirit of life dwelling in every creature calls us to enter into relationship with God. We cultivate “ecological virtues” of humility, tenderness, protecting the vulnerable, simplicity, limited use of natural resources, and preferencing human dignity over profit for self or others. We believe that all private property has a social purpose, and we are part of a “universal communion” that excludes nothing and no one.
4. Christians have a unique role in bringing this disease under control. First, we need to repent from teaching that God ordained humans to dominate and enslave nature, rather than to serve and preserve creation as “ministers of the Creator.” Second, we must promote reverence for birds, flowers, sunsets, the ocean, cultures, and peoples, and virtuous habits, such as prayer at meals, reduced consumerism, and resting on Sundays, that promote “ecological conversion.” To eradicate this soul sickness requires the whole human family cooperating “as instruments of God for the care of creation, each according to his or her own culture, experience, involvements, and talents.” Everyone can do something. Every good thing you do matters and multiplies. Everything is connected.
5. Even with such a grave diagnosis, the Holy One, who loves us so much, is always present. The Lord of life “does not abandon us.” We go bravely on, with love impelling us to find new ways to live. It is time to “take charge of this home that has been entrusted to us.” Let us sing as we go, heads held high, determined to let no one take our dignity and never to relinquish “the joy of our hope.”
Scientists have catalogued the symptoms. Our religious traditions have identified the disease. Everyone can take precautions to control its spread. However, we still lack “leadership capable of striking out on new paths and meeting the needs of the present with concern for all and without prejudice toward coming generations” and “a legal framework which can set clear boundaries and ensure the protection of ecosystems.” Prior governmental responses have been weak—and weak action actually strengthens the disease.
In Paris this fall, the global climate meeting must prioritize a politics for people—one free from the delusion of a technological salvation or the pathological fear of profaning a deified market. Starting now, every single person (even those corporate golems formed under Citizens United) must demand worldwide legal processes that prioritize and enforce good habits of ecological citizenship. Laudato Si’ provides a global moral framework for moving forward.
Rose Marie Berger, a Catholic peace activist and poet, is senior editor of Sojourners magazine. She is author ofBending the Arch: Poems.
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