'Never have we so hurt and mistreated our common home as we have in the last two hundred years,' he states. Martin Palmer, an Anglican who was previously the Secretary General of the Alliance of Religions and Conservation an NGO created by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh in 1995 to change the views of religions on environmentalism and global warming claims that Francis' encyclical 'really helped, but now unfortunately, people in the Vatican still fear they will be attacked or compromised over this.' įrancis 'pulls no punches' when lamenting pollution, climate change, a lack of clean water, loss of biodiversity, and an overall decline in human life and a breakdown of society. This was due primarily to concerns about Malthusian-derived concepts about population control and how that related to Catholic moral teachings on aspects such as artificial contraception and abortion, as emphasised in Pope Paul VI's encyclical Humanae Vitae. The Catholic Church, even after the Second Vatican Council, had put some distance between itself and the modern environmentalist movement. Main article: Christian views on environmentalism He says that our social and environmental crises are thus one complex crisis that must be solved holistically. Nature cannot be seen as something apart from humanity, or merely the place where we live. Thus we see 'other living beings as mere objects subjected to arbitrary human domination' and do not realize that 'the ultimate purpose of other creatures is not found in us.' Francis says that instead of viewing humanity as having 'dominion' over the earth, we must see that everything is interconnected and that all of creation is a 'kind of universal family'. The real problem, according to Francis, lies in the fact that humans no longer see God as the Creator. This subtext makes the document 'more profoundly subversive' than it appears on the surface. This has resulted in a ' throwaway culture' in which unwanted items and unwanted people, such as the unborn, the elderly, and the poor, are discarded as waste. The warming of the planet is a symptom of a greater problem: the developed world's indifference to the destruction of the planet as they pursue short-term economic gains. He adds that 'Although the post-industrial period may well be remembered as one of the most irresponsible in history, nonetheless there is reason to hope that humanity at the dawn of the twenty-first century will be remembered for having generously shouldered its grave responsibilities.' Francis does state that concern for the natural world is no longer ''optional' but is an integral part of the Church teaching on social justice.' įrancis reportedly has said that the encyclical was not really an environmental document at all. But I am concerned to encourage an honest and open debate so that particular interests or ideologies will not prejudice the common good.

Here I would state once more that the Church does not presume to settle scientific questions or to replace politics. There are certain environmental issues where it is not easy to achieve a broad consensus. The tone of the Pope's phrasing has been described as 'cautious and undogmatic, and he specifically calls for discussion and dialogue.' For example, he states in the encyclical (#188): The title of the social encyclical is a Central Italian phrase from Francis of Assisi's 13th-century ' Canticle of the Sun' (also called the Canticle of the Creatures), a poem and prayer in which God is praised for the creation of the different creatures and aspects of the Earth. John Zizioulas, Eastern Orthodox metropolitan of Pergamon, presents the encyclical Laudato si' at the press conference in Rome.

Dato latin