{"id":706,"date":"2015-06-28T12:17:54","date_gmt":"2015-06-28T16:17:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/?p=706"},"modified":"2016-07-31T23:02:14","modified_gmt":"2016-08-01T03:02:14","slug":"laudato-si-magisterial-ecology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/?p=706","title":{"rendered":"Laudato Si: Magisterial Ecology"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Holy Father\u2019s new encyclical, Laudato Si<\/em>, whose title is taken from the canticle of Saint Francis of Assisi, lives up to radical Franciscan spirituality (from the Latin radix<\/em>, going back to the root or source), sparing no punches in his denunciations of the waywardness of the world, calling for a return to a simple way of life, less dependent on technology and non-renewable resources, more focused on God, the beauty of His creation, our relationships with one another.<\/p>\n

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There are, as many of you have likely already heard or read, controversial aspects to the encyclical, largely stemming from Pope Francis’ apparent tendency to make statements that can be misinterpreted.\u00a0 I am not out to judge the Pope, but one must read his often exhortatory statements in the light of reason and the traditional teaching of the Church.<\/p>\n

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There is his much-touted \u00a0endorsement of the scientific validity of anthropogenic global warming by carbon emissions (#23), with which the radical environmentalists are already making hay.\u00a0 The Church does have a limited authority to speak on scientific issues, when they pertain to faith or morals (e.g., Pius XII\u2019s limits on the theory of human evolution in Humani Generis<\/em>).\u00a0 However, she must be cautious in advocating as-yet unproven scientific theories, especially shaky ones rife with fraud<\/a>, and drawing moral conclusions therefrom. The carbon-emission hypothesis is only a small part of the letter, however, and Francis admits later on that this question is not completely decided, that debate is possible, and that \u201con many concrete questions, the Church has no reason to offer a definitive opinion; she knows that honest debate must be encouraged amongst experts, while respecting divergent views\u201d (#61).\u00a0 In other words, the encyclical does not<\/em> oblige Catholics to believe in\u00a0anthropogenic climate change or global warming.<\/p>\n

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I also have concerns with the Pope\u2019s apparent advocacy of the Earth Charter (he mentions it without criticism in #207), and his call for an international body with legal powers to enforce environmentally-friendly policies (#170, 173), especially if we accept ‘carbon emissions’\u00a0 produced by humans as pollutants (although, thankfully, the Holy Father is against the easily-abused scheme of \u2018carbon credits\u2019, #171).\u00a0 The Holy Father does warn that the sovereignty of nations must be protected (#38), but I would have difficulty imagining such a international body being friendly to the Church, or to large families, Catholic or otherwise.<\/p>\n

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I am also not sure how to jibe his stated goal to “eliminate poverty” (#172, 175), with\u00a0 Our Lord’s prediction that “the poor you will always have with you” (Mt 26:11; Mk 14:7).\u00a0 Reason also tells us that ‘poverty’ is a relative reality.\u00a0 The poor in Canada, who have access to a ‘free’ health care system and welfare, are not quite the same as the poor in Calcutta, who are left in the gutter, at least until the Sisters of Charity arrived. \u00a0There will always be the ‘rich’ and the ‘poor’, both monetarily and otherwise, until the end of time. \u00a0I would think the term ‘alleviate’ poverty would have made things clearer; I wholeheartedly agree that we will always have work to do for the poor.<\/p>\n

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Also, I have some sympathy for the Holy Father’s advice to turn down, or off, the air conditioner, to “wear warmer clothes” rather than turn up the heat, to avoid the \u201cuse of plastic and paper\u201d, to reduce water consumption (cf., #211), all within the broad exhortation to wean ourselves from ‘fossil fuels’ (#165) and care for the environment.\u00a0 However, he does not make clear just how bad these often much-needed realities are.\u00a0 How are we now to view driving our cars, especially on long road trips, air travel, heating our homes, cooking our food?\u00a0 I would not mind having some clearer directives how to proceed.\u00a0 Back to the science question:\u00a0 How polluting really are the burning\u00a0 of fossil fuels and the harvesting of paper?<\/p>\n

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But, anon, enough of the controversial aspects, and on to the main emphasis of the encyclical, a call for a radical reorientation of our view towards God’s creation, and our place therein:\u00a0 That all things are created by God, and signify in a broad sacramental way some aspect of His glory, and that we can ascend from created things \u201cto the greatness of God and to his loving mercy\u201d (#77).\u00a0 Francis declares the need to reappropriate \u201ca correct understanding of work\u201d which can only come about if we first grasp the proper \u201crelationship between human beings and things\u201d (#124).\u00a0 A re-emphasis, following from John Paul II and the unbroken tradition of the Church of a true \u201cecology of man\u201d, and accepting \u201cone\u2019s own body in its femininity or masculinity\u201d, as well as recognizing the \u201cfamily as the basic cell of society\u201d (#157).<\/p>\n

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Along these lines, the Holy Father calls for a renewed respect and care for all of creation, to maintain its bountiful biodiversity, which not only reflects God\u2019s beauty, but which is often helpful to man (one may consider insects and agriculture, cf., #34).\u00a0 Primary and inviolable protection, however, is to be given to human life.\u00a0 As the Holy Father asks, \u201c(h)ow can we genuinely teach the importance of concern for other vulnerable beings, however troublesome or inconvenient they may be, if we fail to protect a human embryo, even when its presence is uncomfortable and creates difficulties?\u201d (#120). \u00a0\u00a0While we must learn to care for our environment and use resources wisely and prudently, the ecological problems we face cannot<\/em> be solved by a \u201creduction in the birth rate\u201d (#50).\u00a0 Quoting the Church\u2019s Compendium of Social Doctrine<\/em>, Francis makes clear that \u201cdemographic growth is fully compatible with an integral and shared development\u201d (#50), and that our ecological problems are rather the effect of an \u201cextreme and selective consumerism on the part of some\u201d (ibid.).\u00a0 One might surmise that the \u2018some\u2019 are those who call most vociferously for population reduction.<\/p>\n

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While recognizing the utility and even the beauty of technology as a \u201cmeans of improving the quality of human life\u201d (#103), Francis also recognizes its dangers, for our \u201cimmense technological development has not been accompanied by a development in human responsibility, values and conscience\u201d (#105).\u00a0 As Francis put it earlier in the letter, \u201cwhen media and the digital world become omnipresent\u201d, and who does not see smartphones everywhere, \u201ctheir influence can stop people from learning how to live wisely, to think deeply and to love generously\u201d (#47).\u00a0 Would that our modern educational establishments took to heart his words that \u201c(t)rue wisdom, as the fruit of self-examination, dialogue and generous encounter between persons, is not acquired by a mere accumulation of data which eventually leads to overload and confusion, a sort of mental pollution\u201d (ibid.).<\/p>\n

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The Holy Father’s has some harsh words for our over-consumerist society, and I must confess that I have a good degree of sympathy for him here, more so than some of the Catholic blogosphere.\u00a0 He does not condemn capitalism, nor does he advocate socialism, but rather asks us to go beyond what he calls \u201can undifferentiated and one-dimensional paradigm\u201d in our approach to the economy, a paradigm based on the \u201cscientific and experimental method, which in itself is already a technique of possession, mastery and transformation\u201d (#106).\u00a0 An economy cannot operate solely upon the basis of profit, especially when \u201cfinance overwhelms the real economy\u201d (#109).\u00a0 This problem is not just economic, but epistemological, following upon our \u201cfragmentation of knowledge\u201d (a fruit of our modern university education), which leads only to partial solutions and to a \u201closs of the appreciation of the whole\u201d (#110).<\/p>\n

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One vital application of \u2018seeing the whole\u2019 is the need to protect employment, and a reappropriation of the value and dignity of human work. Quoting the Pastoral Constitution on the Church from Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes<\/em>, the Holy Father reiterates that \u201cman is the source, the focus and the aim of all economic and social life\u201d (#127; cf., GS, #63). \u00a0In this context, profit is only one factor in any business enterprise, and we should beware, for example, of \u201claying off workers and replacing them with machines\u201d (#128).\u00a0 Such loss of jobs, which is becoming a real problem in our society, in turn has a negative impact on the economy.\u00a0 To build a stable and long-lasting financial basis, \u201cit is imperative to promote an economy which favours productive diversity and business creativity\u201d (#129) and civil leaders have the \u201cright and duty\u201d, in concrete cases, \u201cto adopt clear and firm measures in support of small producers and differentiated production\u201d (ibid.). \u00a0Do we want all our clothes, furniture and food to come from the same multinational companies, especially those that have unjust, even slave-like, labour policies?\u00a0 Should not local production and employment be fostered and supported?\u00a0 As Francis states, \u201cto stop investing in people, in order to gain greater short-term financial gain, is bad business for society\u201d (#128).<\/p>\n

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Towards the end of the encyclical, the Holy Father has a beautiful exhortation for us to attain true \u201cjoy and peace\u201d by a \u201cprophetic and contemplative lifestyle, one capable of deep enjoyment free of the obsession with consumption\u201d, to be \u201cspiritually detached from what we possess, and not to succumb to sadness of what we lack\u201d (#222).\u00a0 This can only be accomplished through a \u201csobriety and humility\u201d which leads to an \u201cintegrity of human life, of the need to promote and unify all the great values\u201d, which is impossible if we \u201cexclude God from our lives or replace him with our own ego\u201d (#224).\u00a0 I agree wholeheartedly with Pope Francis that \u201c(w)e have had enough of immorality and the mockery of ethics, goodness, faith and honesty\u201d, and that \u201clight-hearted superficiality has done us no good\u201d (#229).<\/p>\n

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The primary means to attain such peace and magnanimous goodness is to recognize and reflect upon the beauty of creation and of being at peace with ourselves (#225), but most of all through participation in the sacraments, those tangible, created realities through which God offers us his grace, a participation in His very life.\u00a0 As Francis declares, \u201c(i)t is in the Eucharist that all that has been created finds its greatest exaltation.\u00a0 Grace, which tends to manifest itself tangibly, found unsurpassable expression when God himself became man and gave himself as food for his creatures\u201d (#236).\u00a0 It is here, in the Eucharist, that \u201cfullness is already achieved; it is the living centre of the universe\u201d.\u00a0 It is thus that \u201cthe Eucharist joins heaven and earth; it embraces and penetrates all creation\u201d (ibid.).<\/p>\n

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So creation itself becomes supernaturalized, signifying that all things come from God and are held in His hands.\u00a0 In fact, all creation signifies the very Trinitarian reality of God, the \u201cdivine Persons\u201d which are \u201csubsistent relations\u201d, in the reality of which the \u201chuman person grows more, matures more and is sanctified more to the extent that he or she enters into relationships, going out from themselves to live in communion with God, with others and with all creatures\u201d (#240).<\/p>\n

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At the end, with Our Lady, who \u201cin her glorified body, together with the Risen Christ…has reached the fullness of beauty\u201d, we too \u201cwill find ourselves face to face with the infinite beauty of God\u201d, whose creation is but a dim reflection, but nonetheless a foretaste, of this glory.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

June 28, 2015<\/p>\n

13th Sunday<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Holy Father\u2019s new encyclical, Laudato Si, whose title is taken from the canticle of Saint Francis of Assisi, lives up to radical Franciscan spirituality (from the Latin radix, going back to the root or source), sparing no punches in his denunciations of the waywardness of the world, calling for a return to a simple […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,10,2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=706"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1536,"href":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706\/revisions\/1536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}