Laudato si, an encyclical by Pope Francis which is a Latin translation to “May you be
praised” or also known as Care for Our Common Home . According to the Huffinton
Post (2017) an encyclical, as its name implies, is a “circular letter” meant to be spread
throughout a community. A papal encyclical is a letter from a pope that can be
addressed to the bishops and priests of a country or region, or the clergy of the entire
world. In this case, the encyclical Laudato si by Pope Francis is addressed to the whole
world. The name of the encyclical is inspired from the words of St. Francis of Assisi
which he famously said “Praise be to you, my Lord” in his famous canticle of the
creatures praises God with all of his creation. St. Francis further reminds us that the
Earth is our common home and that we are made up of elements of Earth and will
cease to be elements of Earth until our deaths.
Laudato Si is intended by Pope Francis to remind us of the importance of the Earth as
our common home. Pope Francis pointed out that man is doing so much harm to the
environment which is not supposed to be happening because we are supposed to
protect our home. The scope of the encyclical does not only address the environment
but there are also philosophical, cultural, and theological implications. One may not
expect a Pope to publish a document like this and this is a very unlikely topic, however
this presents so many truths about what the Bible really says and challenges us as
Christians as to how we should live out in our environment.
Laudato si started as an analysis of the world’s environment’s state in a religious point
of view. In the first part of the document, Pope Francis describes the main goal of the
document which he said “I urgently appeal, then, for a new dialogue about how we are
shaping the future of our planet. We need a conversation that includes everyone, since
the environment challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect
us all” (#14). The first chapter of the document is an overview by Pope Francis about
what is really happening in our current society and when we read it, we might be
“painfully moved” that we are not providing the protection to the environment that it
really deserves. When we read the first part of the document, we become guilty that we
are not doing our part in the protection of the common home. Pope Francis points out
that there is so much pollution, deforestation, global warming, and the depletion of our
natural resources, all of which degrades the overall total quality of human life that Earth
can offer us.
There might be many causes of such negativity in our environment but Pope Francis
points out main reasons for the happening of such to our environment. Pope Francis
further that first and foremost, the reason for this is that we have a “throwaway culture”
or explaining that our culture discards so many things and ruthlessly consumes natural
resources because we all want something more and we are not contended by what we
have, so we throw out easily and buy more. Pope Francis also challenges the
advancement of technology and its role in our economies that state efficiency, speed,
technology, commodification of goods and services, for fast and more profit is to be
prioritized over the environment. This mindset in technology sees technology as the key
to human progress and human existence. The Christian mindset should not be like this
because Christianity is all about love and being content and happy with the things that
God gives you. Pope Francis tells us that the world lacks the leadership to challenge
this kind of culture and challenges us to hear the cry of the Earth with our conscience.
