HomeMy WebLinkAboutSubmittal-Nathan Kurland-Encyclical Letter of the Holy Father FrancisL2*xa1OSI ( 4May LAID)
ENCYCLICAL LETTER
LAUDATO SI'
OF THE HOLY FATHER
FRANCIS
ON CARE FOR OUR COMMON HOME
1. "LAUDATO SI', mi' Signore" — "Praise be to you, my Lord". In the words
of this beautiful canticle, Saint Francis of Assisi reminds us that our
common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful
mother who opens her arms to embrace us. "Praise be to you, my Lord,
through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who
produces various fruit with coloured flowers and herbs".[1]
2. This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted
on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God
has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and
masters, entitled to plunder her at will. The violence present in our hearts,
wounded by sin, is also reflected in the symptoms of sickness evident in
the soil, in the water, in the air and in all forms of life. This is why the
earth herself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and
maltreated of our poor; she "groans in travail" (Rom 8:22). We have
forgotten that we ourselves are dust of the earth (cf. Gen 2:7); our very
bodies are made up of her elements, we breathe her air and we receive
life and refreshment from her waters.
Nothing in this world is indifferent to us
3. More than fifty years ago, with the world teetering on the brink of
nuclear crisis, Pope Saint John XXIII wrote an Encyclical which not only
rejected war but offered a proposal for peace. He addressed his message
Pacem in Terris to the entire "Catholic world" and indeed "to all men and
women of good will". Now, faced as we are with global environmental
deterioration, I wish to address every person living on this planet. In my
Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, I wrote to all the members of the
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reaches the sea as the result of deforestation, agricultural monocultures,
industrial waste and destructive fishing methods, especially those using
cyanide and dynamite. It is aggravated by the rise in temperature of the
oceans. Al! of this helps us to see that every intervention in nature can
have consequences which are not immediately evident, and that certain
ways of exploiting resources prove costly in terms of degradation which
ultimately reaches the ocean bed itself.
42. Greater investment needs to be made in research aimed at
understanding more fully the functioning of ecosystems and adequately
analyzing the different variables associated with any significant
modification of the environment. Because all creatures are connected,
each must be cherished with love and respect, for all of us as living
creatures are dependent on one another. Each area is responsible for the
care of this family. This will require undertaking a careful inventory of the
species which it hosts, with a view to developing programmes and
strategies of protection with particular care for safeguarding species
heading towards extinction.
IV. DECLINE IN THE QUALITY OF HUMAN LIFE AND THE
BREAKDOWN OF SOCIETY
43. Human beings too are creatures of this world, enjoying a right to life
and happiness, and endowed with unique dignity. So we cannot fail to
consider the effects on people's lives of environmental deterioration,
current models of development and the throwaway culture.
44. Nowadays, for example, we are conscious of the disproportionate and
unruly growth of many cities, which have become unhealthy to live in, not
only because of pollution caused by toxic emissions but also as a result of
urban chaos, poor transportation, and visual pollution and noise. Many
cities are huge, inefficient structures, excessively wasteful of energy and
water. Neighbourhoods, even those recently built, are congested, chaotic
and lacking in sufficient green space. We were not meant to be inundated
by cement, asphalt, glass and metal, and deprived of physical contact with
nature.
45. In some places, rural and urban alike, the privatization of certain
spaces has restricted people's access to places of particular beauty. In
others, "ecological" neighbourhoods have been created which are closed
to outsiders in order to ensure an artificial tranquillity. Frequently, we find
beautiful and carefully manicured green spaces in so-called "safer" areas
of cities, but not in the more hidden areas where the disposable of society
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