Pope Francis: The Christian
foundations for the care of creation
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| Pope Francis |
Coinciding with the final days of the Synod for the Amazon,
and a few days ahead of the fourth anniversary of “Laudato sí”, a new book has
been issued, which gathers together writings and discourses from Pope Francis
on the environment. The book aims to explain a Christian vision of ecology.
By Vatican News
The Vatican publishing house, Libreria Editrice
Vaticana, on Thursday released a new book of Pope Francis’ thoughts on the
environment, including a previously unpublished text. “Our Mother Earth: A
Christian reading of the environmental challenge” (Italian: Nostra
Terra Madre. Una lettura Cristiana della sfida dell’ambiente) also includes
a preface by Bartholomew, the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople,
that retraces the stages of their collaboration on this topic. In particular,
Bartholomew points to their messages on the occasion of the World Days of
Prayer for the Care of Creation, instituted in 2015,
which unite the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches in common “concerns
for the future of creation”.
The unity of the human family
In the first chapter of Our Mother Earth,
entitled “Integral Vision”, various texts have been selected, including
numerous excerpts from Laudato
sí, which highlight the need to protect our common home through the
union of “the whole human family in the search for a sustainable and integral
development”.
This premise is developed in the second chapter, “From an
epochal challenge to a global opportunity”, through an analysis of some
passages from the Pope’s encyclical on the current state of environmental
crises. Pollution, global warming, climate change, and loss of biodiversity,
the effect of uncontrolled exploitation, are destined to grow exponentially if
there is no change of direction in the short term. We need an “environmental
conversion”, Pope Francis says, that is possible through the promotion of a
truly ecological education that would create, especially in the young, a
renewed awareness and ultimately a renewed conscience.
Safeguarding creation and the right to life
A further section, which collects excerpts from speeches,
homilies, and reflections at audiences, makes it clear that Pope Francis, from
the very beginning of his pontificate, has not shied away from facing with the
utmost urgency a problem that can no longer be deferred. It is a matter of
safeguarding the immense gift given by God to every living being, but
especially to man, the only creature that has received the breath of God “blown
on his face”. From the words of Genesis, Pope Francis emphasizes how
safeguarding creation, on the one hand, and human life, on the other, are
intimately connected an inseparable. The Pope’s words are a continuous appeal
for the right to life, a right that is encompassed in key words such as
responsibility, justice, equality, and solidarity. For these fundamental
reasons, Pope Francis calls for free access to the goods of the earth necessary
for survival – and first of all water – without any discrimination between
peoples.
A spiritual reading of ecology
In the new article that concludes Our Mother Earth,
Pope Francis turns his gaze upwards, in order to offer an even wider vision of
a discourse that is not focused solely on the concern for the protection of the
environment. Although there are many shared aspects, a Christian vision is not comparable
to a secular vision of ecology. In this final chapter, Pope Francis develops
the “theology of ecology” in a profoundly spiritual discourse.
The love of God at the centre of everything
Creation, the Pope says, is the fruit of God’s love: His
love for each of His creatures, and especially for man, to whom He has given
the gift of creation, as a place in which “we are invited to discover a
presence”.
However, the Pope continues, “this means that it is for
humanity’s capacity for communion to condition the state of creation […] It is
therefore humanity’s destiny to determine the destiny of the universe”. The
connection between humanity and creation lives in love, and is corrupted if it
is lacking, and if it fails to recognise the gift that has been given. The Pope
explains that the exploitation of resources, in an irresponsible way, in order
to gain power and wealth, that is then concentrated in the hands of a few
people, creates an imbalance destined to destroy the world, and humanity
itself.
Structures of sin
Pope Francis asks if this state of environmental emergency
might not become an opportunity to turn back, to choose life, and thus to
review economic and cultural models, thereby realising justice and sharing,
where every human being can enjoy equal dignity and equal rights. In our time,
he said, we have forgotten the active and open dimension of “being”, instead
privileging the dimension of “having” – a possessiveness that leads to closure,
where human beings define themselves, and recognizes themselves, only to the
extent of their material goods. In such a situation, those who have little or
nothing “risk losing their faces, so that they disappear, becoming
one of those ‘invisibles’ who populate our cities”.
Referring back to St John Paul II’s encyclical Sollicitudo
rei socialis, Pope Francis says that the structures of sin “produce
evil, pollute the environment, hurt and humiliate the poor, [and] favour the
logic of possession and of power”.
Starting again from the Holy Spirit and forgiveness
The Holy Father, however, cautions that a technological
revolution and individual commitment are not enough. Awareness, he says, is
gained primarily through an “authentic spirit of communion”. We must
start again from forgiveness: asking forgiveness of the poor and the exclusive,
first of all, in order to be capable of asking forgiveness also of “the earth,
the sea, the air, the animals…” For Pope Francis, seeking forgiveness means
totally revising one’s own way of thinking; it means profound personal renewal.
Forgiveness, he says, is only possible in and through the
Holy Spirit. It is a grace to be implored humbly from the Lord. Forgiveness,
then, is to become active, undertaking a journey together, and never in
solitude.
The vision of the believer: Beginning from the Eucharist
Pope Francis says that, in addition to reviewing one’s own
lifestyle and changing one’s mentality, we must also have a vision. Believers
can find this vision in the liturgy, and especially in the celebration of the
Mass. Bread and wine are the first foods that humans obtained by transforming
the fruits of nature, the wheat and the grapes, through their own ingenuity. In
the Mass, humans offer bread and wine to God; and God, through the Holy Spirit,
transforms them into the Body and Blood of Christ. He restores them to humans
in His greatest gift, the gift of His Son. Bread and wine, the Pope says, are
inserted into a circle of symbols: gift of God, commitment of man, work,
effort; necessary food and daily bread; joy and the feast of wine. “And just as
in the Eucharist the bread and the wine become Christ because they are bathed
by the Spirit, the personal love of the Father; so creation becomes the
personal word of God when it is used with love”. In these words we can see Pope
Francis’ hope.
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