REFLECTIONS ON POPE FRANCIS - PART 5 (AND OTHER POPES)

As I continue my reflections on Pope Francis, I turn my attention this week to his first Encyclical Letter, the 10th anniversary of which is marked this weekend: “Laudato Si”, which means literally “Praise be to you”, based on a famous prayer of St Francis of Assisi. The letter is subtitled: “On Care for our Common Home” and reminds all the faithful and indeed “every person living on this planet” of our shared responsibility to care for the common home that has been entrusted to us by God. It is important to note that Pope Francis was not the first Pope to teach this; Pope St Paul VI, Pope St John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI regularly and emphatically taught the same message, and Pope Francis quotes them all in his letter. Some secular observers even dubbed Pope Benedict XVI “the Green Pope” during his Pontificate because of his regular and emphatic teachings on the importance of caring for the environment, including practical action in moving the Vatican itself towards renewable energy. Indeed, Pope Francis’s successor Pope Leo XIV preached in his inaugural homily:

“I would like that our first great desire be for a united Church, a sign of unity and communion, which becomes a leaven for a reconciled world. In this our time, we still see too much discord, too many wounds caused by hatred, violence, prejudice, the fear of difference, and an economic paradigm that exploits the Earth's resources and marginalizes the poorest." "In our time, the topic of caring for the environment can all too easily fall prey to political partisanship. As Catholics, we are called to rise above these superficial divisions and to unite around the teaching of every Pope of the past 50 years, all of whom have taught that caring for the environment is indeed an essential part of our Christian calling."

Pope Francis’s teaching in Laudato Si brought these teachings into a profound synthesis, proceeding from the foundational truths of our faith that every detail of creation has been willed by our loving Creator and reveals something of the Creator, and that we are created in the image of God with a special responsibility of actively and proactively caring for creation and for one another – with special care for the most vulnerable among us.

The FULL TEXT of Pope Francis' Laudato Si' Encyclical can be found here.