Below are some initial reactions to the Pope’s newEncyclical. They’re perhaps a bit disjointed, and certainly do not cover everything. But they are some of my initial impressions on reading the document, and a few points I took away as most important. I do encourage everyone to read it. It is a fairly simple style to read, and easily comprehensible. It is also the best way to steer clear of the overly-ideological spin that the members of the media seem determined to give to it.
Climate Change
Before getting to the actual encyclical, I want to mention
some of the reporting. Reading the press
accounts, many have discussed the encyclical as if it were the Climate Change
Encyclical. To just take one typical
example, a New
York Times’s headline puts it, somewhat predictably, this way: “Pope
Francis in Sweeping Encyclical Calls for Swift Action on Climate Change”. As is typical for the religion reporting at
that newspaper, it reflects more the ideological hopes of the author and
editors than it does what the Pope actually said. In fact, the notion of
Climate Change makes up a rather small part of the Encyclical. It is certainly addressed, and the Pope sees
it as important, but to identify it as the main thrust of this Encyclical, as
the New York Times and others do, is very misleading.
Also, the Pope is very clear that the reality of Climate Change is not something on which he speaks with magisterial authority. He speaks in terms of “scientific consensus”, and defers to the scientific community. He says, quite bluntly: “I would state once more that the Church does not presume to settle scientific questions or to replace politics.”
In other words, the Encyclical is much broader than just an affirmation of the scientific consensus on climate change. Any news outlet you read or hear that pitches it that way is being deceptive—don’t listen to them. Rather, this Encyclical is a far-reaching reflection on creation itself, and especially man’s place within it. Moreover, it is meant to reflect specifically on the modern world, and specifically role and place of modern technology in the life of man and with respect to the environment.
Laudato si’
As most people have commended, the title is taken from the
first words of the Encyclical. Usually
this is in Latin, but this time Pope Francis chose to use the 13th
century Umbrian Italian of St. Francis of Assisi. Those Italian words are “Laudato si’, mi’
Signore” (or, in modern Italian: “Laudato sii, mio Signore”). Most media outlets are reporting only the
first two words, which are the title: “Praised be to you”. But it is important to understand all of St.
Francis’s words: “Praised be to you, my Lord.”
For St. Francis especially, everything is directed to God. St. Francis did not talk about himself, he
talked about God.
In many ways, this is the key to understanding the whole
Encyclical. The Pope wants to reject two
extremes. On the one hand, he wants to
reject a distorted anthropomorphism that exaggerates man’s role in the
world. On the other hand, he wants to
reject a neo-pantheism that would worship creation and make man utterly subject
to it.
Some of those in the environmental movement have criticized the
Judeo-Christian tradition as one of the sources of the problem of economic
degradation. The Biblical language asserting
man’s Dominion of the world, some argue, has become the excuse by which man
ravages the land for his own use.
Moreover, the extend that criticism to the medieval philosophers and the
hierarchy of being, which places man at the top of the material world, and the
rest of the created order—animals, plants, the earth itself—underneath
him.
Pope Francis wisely corrects this false view. It is true that the Christian understanding
of creation posits in man a greater dignity, for human beings are the only ones
in the material world created in God’s image and likeness. And God’s words to Adam after he’s been
expelled from the Garden are to till the land – but he also tells him to “keep
it”, in the sense of protect and preserve it.
It is true that man is given governance over creation, but even that
remains subject to the Providence of God.
Man’s governance of creation is itself subject to God’s plan, in which
all things find their end in God. So,
far from man having absolute dominion over the earth, the Christian tradition
sees man as its caretaker, its steward. This
sums it up well: “Our relationship with the environment can never be isolated
from our relationship with others and with God. Otherwise, it would be nothing
more than romantic individualism dressed up in ecological garb, locking us into
a stifling immanence.” (LS 119) And this
notion of stewardship means especially recognizing that we protect the world
for future generations. In what will
likely become one of the more quoted lines of the Encyclical: “What kind of
world do we want to leave to those who come after us, to children who are now
growing up?” (LS 160)
At the same time, we must avoid the temptation to equate the
value of man and the rest of the created order.
Pope Francis is very clear on this.
He says: “There can be no ecology without an adequate anthropology. When
the human person is considered as simply one being among others, the product of
chance or physical determinism, then ‘our overall sense of responsibility wanes’.”
(LS 118) He emphasizes this hierarchy
especially in an example about water. As
the Pope explains, access to fresh water is a vital natural resource because it
is an absolute necessity for human life.
So, when assessing the environmental effects of given projects, we need
to take into account the effects on access to water: “For example, we know that
water is a scarce and indispensable resource and a fundamental right which
conditions the exercise of other human rights. This indisputable fact overrides
any other assessment of environmental impact on a region.” (LS 185) This means not only the manufacturer whose
product despoils the water table, but the subspecies of fish who that may have
to be sacrificed to permit access to water in a drought. The environment is not to be preserved in
some sort of permanent stasis, like a scene in a snow globe. It is not some idol of the present, to be
worshipped in itself.
An Integral Ecology
The primary focus of the Pope’s Encyclical is to prompt a
change in attitude regarding man’s place in the environment. He deliberately speaks in terms of an “ecological
conversion” (LS 5) rather than a
merely environmental one. The reason for
this is to emphasize the interdependence of the created world. An ecology is more than just a few plants and
some animals thrown together. An ecology
is a system – a system of interdependence between the various elements of the
environment, which sustains them and allows them to continue. So, too, man is not cut off from the
environment around him. Rather, he must
be aware that he is a part of the ecological system – a system he needs and
that he in turn effect. Moreover, there
is an ecology to human society as well – that the social dimensions of human
life are related to the way in which we approach creation around us. Therefore, Pope Francis prompts us to an “integral
ecology” which recognizes the “interrelation between ecosystems and between the
various spheres of social interaction”.
(LS 141) In other words, we need
to broaden our view to better recognize how our life, in all its dimensions, is
part of our natural environment.
Conversion of Life
More than anything, the Pope calls us to a conversion of
life. Man lives in a world marred by
sin, and this disorder within us effects our relationship with creation,
too. “The harmony between the Creator,
humanity and creation as a whole was disrupted by our presuming to take the
place of God and refusing to acknowledge our creaturely limitations.” Man’s selfishness looks to his own
gratification first, regardless of the consequences. The Pope calls us to live a simpler life,
casting aside the modern temptations of consumerism and individualism, to live
in a more harmonious relationship with God’s creation. This is more than international agreements,
political campaigns, or green technology.
It is first and foremost a recognition that our encounter with Jesus
Christ must also be manifest in our relationship with the world around us. As the Pope emphasizes: “a healthy
relationship with creation is one dimension of overall personal conversion,
which entails the recognition of our errors, sins, faults and failures, and
leads to heartfelt repentance and desire to change.” This call to conversion is addressed to all
levels of society – the individual family, neighborhoods and communities, local
and national governments, leaders of business and industry, and multinational
organizations.
One Critique
As much good as there is in this Encyclical, there are some
problems. The biggest problem, to put it quite bluntly, is the Pope’s
insufficient understanding of economics.
The Pope constantly sees economic growth in merely static terms. For him, it seems, the economic life is like a
big pie, and if one person takes a piece, then he is denying it to someone
else. But the reality of market-based
systems is that they can grow the pie. When resources are given to those who use
them most efficiently for the greatest good, everyone benefits. And it is precisely the mechanism of price that allows those goods to transfer
most efficiently. Is a market-based
system perfect? Of course not, society
needs political mechanisms to provide for justice – something markets do not do
very well. But it is undeniable that private
property and free and open markets are the two greatest forces for eliminating
material poverty that the world has ever known.
