The eagerly-awaited papal encyclical entitled ‘Laudato Si’: on the care of our common home’ was presented at a press conference on Thursday morning in the Vatican’s synod hall, which was packed with journalists, diplomats and religious leaders. The 192 page document, published in eight languages, was introduced by Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical Justice and Peace council, together with a leading Orthodox theologian, an acclaimed German climate scientist, an American businesswoman and an Italian school teacher.
Philippa Hitchen tells us more about this unprecedented event:
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Pope Francis’ first encyclical focuses on the idea of ‘integral ecology’, connecting care of the natural world with justice for the poorest and most vulnerable people. Only by radically reshaping our relationships with God, with our neighbours and with the natural world, he says, can we hope to tackle the threats facing our planet today. Science, he insists, is the best tool by which we can listen to the cry of the earth, while dialogue and education are the two keys that can “help us to escape the spiral of self-destruction which currently engulfs us”.
If that seems like strong language, Professor John Schellnhuber, head of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, used a power point presentation to show just how just how urgent the environmental crisis has become. His charts and diagrams showed how dramatically the use of fossil fuels over the past century has damaged the fragile equilibrium of the planet, leading to rising temperatures and threatening the existence of people in the poorest parts of our world. Global warming of just a few degrees may not sound like much, he said, but just compare it to a rise in your own body temperature…..
“You all have a body temperature of slightly below 37°C….add 2°, and you get a fever, add 5° and you will be dead…this is how climate change operates on the earth’s system…”
We are already crossing “planetary guardrails” Professor Schellnhuber said, adding that the problem is not over-population in the poorest countries, but over-consumption by the few richest people who own most of the world’s wealth.
Also welcoming the new encyclical was Orthodox theologian, Metropolitan John Zizioulas, who noted the Ecumenical Patriarchate was the first to highlight the seriousness of the ecological crisis with its own encyclical back in 1989. Neither Catholic, nor Orthodox, nor Protestant theology manuals traditionally had much time for ecology, he said, yet our scriptures tell us that God became man to save not just humanity, but the whole of Creation. We must recognize and repent of our ecological sins, he urged, stressing that this is the major task facing all the divided Christian Churches today:“I believe the significance of the papal encyclical is not limited to the subject of ecology…
“I see in the papal encyclical…….an important ecumenical dimension…..in that it brings divided Christians before a common task that they must face together”
Reacting to some of the criticism levelled at the encyclical, even before its publication, Dr Carolyn Woo, head of Catholic Relief Services and former dean of the Business School at Notre Dame University, said big business must recognize its potential to become part of the solution and not part of the ecological problem….
“We can clearly see that the Pope’s message is based on solid science….. for business which is so big on analytics, it’s important to open our minds and our hearts…..we cannot dismiss this just because we don’t like the message of this evidence”
At the heart of the Pope’s reflections in the new document is the question: “What kind of world do we want to leave to our children” and those who come after us? Politicians, business people, church leaders and individuals now have an important tool to help answer that question and respond to the pressing challenges facing our common home.
(from Vatican Radio)…
The eagerly-awaited papal encyclical entitled ‘Laudato Si’: on the care of our common home’ was presented at a press conference on Thursday morning in the Vatican’s synod hall, which was packed with journalists, diplomats and religious leaders. The 192 page document, published in eight languages, was introduced by Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical…
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The eagerly-awaited papal encyclical entitled ‘Laudato Si’: on the care of our common home’ was presented at a press conference on Thursday morning in the Vatican’s synod hall, which was packed with journalists, diplomats and religious leaders. The 192 page document, published in eight languages, was introduced by Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical…
Read more
(Vatican Radio) During his Mass at the Casa Santa Marta on Thursday morning, Pope Francis said Christians must understand that they cannot advance in the Christian life without the help of God. The Pope also noted that if we are to pray well, we must be prepared to forgive our brothers. The three themes of weakness, prayer, and forgiveness were at the heart of his homily.
The Holy Father began his reflection by emphasizing that we all bear a certain weakness, a weakness “we all bear after the wound of original sin.”
Without the help of the Lord we cannot go forward
We are weak, he repeated, “we slip into sin, we cannot go forward without the help of the Lord”:
“He who believes he is strong, who thinks he is capable of getting by on his own is naïve, and in the end remains a man defeated by so much weakness that he carries in himself: the weakness that brings us to ask for help from the Lord because ‘in our weakness we can do nothing without your help,’ [as] we have prayed. We cannot take a step in our Christian life without the help of the Lord, because we are weak. And he who is on the way should take care not to fall because he is weak.”
We are even weak in faith, he continued. “We all have faith,” he said, “We all want to go forward in the Christian life, but if we are not conscious of our weakness we will end up completely defeated.” There is a beautiful prayer that speaks to this: “O Lord, I know that in my weakness I can do nothing without your help.”
Our prayer has no need of too many words
The Pope then turned his thought to “prayer.” Jesus, he said, taught us to pray, “but not as the pagans” who thought they would be heard because they used many words. Pope Francis recalled the mother of Samuel who asked the Lord for the grace to have a son, and prayed by simply moved her lips. The priest that was there, he said, saw her and was convinced she was drunk and scolded her:
“She only moved her lips because she could not speak… She asked for a son. She prayed in that way, in the sight of the Lord. It is the prayer [we should make]: because we know that He is good and knows all about us and knows the things we need, we should begin to say that word: ‘Father’; which is a human word, certainly, that gives us life, but in prayer we can only say it with the power of the Holy Spirit.”
“Let us begin the prayer with the power of the Spirit who prays in us,” the Pope said, “praying in that way, simply. With open hearts in the presence of God who is the Father, and who knows, knows the things we need before we say them.”
Forgiveness is a great strength, a grace from the Lord
Finally, Pope Francis turned his attention to forgiveness, emphasizing how Jesus taught his disciples that if they did not forgive the faults of others, the Father would not forgive them.
“We can only pray well, and call God ‘Father’ if our heart is at peace with others, with our brothers. ‘But father, this person did this to me, [and] this person did this to me, [and] that person did this…’ ‘Forgive. Forgive as He forgave you.’ And so the weakness that we have, with the help of God in prayer becomes strength because forgiveness is a great strength. One needs to be strong to forgive, but this strength is a grace that we must receive from the Lord because we are weak.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) During his Mass at the Casa Santa Marta on Thursday morning, Pope Francis said Christians must understand that they cannot advance in the Christian life without the help of God. The Pope also noted that if we are to pray well, we must be prepared to forgive our brothers. The three themes of…
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