SYMPOSIUM: The POPE'S ENCYCLICAL and CLIMATE CHANGE POLICYLAUDATO SI',POPE FRANCIS' CALL to ECOLOGICAL CONVERSION: Responding to the cry of the earth and the poor-towards an integral ecology

Abstract

The recent Encyclical by Pope Francis, Laudato Si', On Care for our Common Home, is a remarkable document, both original and continuous within the tradition of Catholic social doctrine. Emerging from and grounded in a very specific religious tradition and constrained by the peculiar encyclical literary form, the document nonetheless seeks to open a dialogue with every person living on this planet, about care for our common home. Using the urgency of addressing global climate change as its point of departure, the Encyclical does a superb job summarizing the scope of the present environmental crisis and the disproportionate harms suffered by vulnerable populations of the poor and excluded. It also provides a careful analysis of the root causes of environmental degradation, mapping out the complex linkages and tensions between globalization, economic growth, liberalized trade, unsustainable patterns of consumption and production, environmental degradation, involuntary migration, immiseration and growing inequality. In this respect, the Encyclical, may well come to serve as a useful position paper for the upcoming Paris climate change negotiations or as a background text for a course on climate change or sustainable development. Yet, properly understood, this is not its true purpose. Rather, in its deepest sense, the Encyclical is an appeal to all of humanity to listen to the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor, to reject the throwaway culture of consumerism, and to embrace a culture of care and a commitment to pursue integral ecology. It is, in other words, a call to ecological conversion: A call addressed not only to individuals but also to individuals-in-community.