ENCYCLICAL LETTER LAUDATO SI? OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS ON CARE FOR OUR COMMON HOME

[ChrryBlstr]

The entire document is probably a tad too long for most in here. However, the departure from papal tendencies is most welcome. Perhaps all the devout will not only take notice, but begin to take measures and start acting accordingly.

?Climate change is a global problem with serious implications, environmental, social, economic, political and for the distribution of goods; it represents one of the principal challenges facing humanity in our day? (25). If ?the climate is a common good, belonging to all and meant for all? (23), the greatest impact of this change falls on the poorest, but ?many of those who possess more resources and economic or political power seem mostly to be concerned with masking the problems or concealing their symptoms? (26). ?Our lack of response to these tragedies involving our brothers and sisters points to the loss of that sense of responsibility for our fellow men and women upon which all civil society is founded? (25).

Click through for the full text of Laudato Si', Pope Francis's Encyclical on climate change.


http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html

Peace!

 

[Skulnik]

This Isn't Just About the Environment



While the encyclical is centered around climate change and the environment, the overall message takes broad swipes at the consumer culture and calls for humans to cut back. "We seem to think that we can substitute an irreplaceable and irretrievable beauty with something that we have created ourselves," Francis writes, one of several times he warns about the dangers of technology created without a thought to its long-term impacts.

(RELATED: What Congress Wants to Hear From Pope Francis)

The encyclical also takes a broad look at humans' overall relationships with each other, saying that development in the last century has "not always led to an integral development and an improvement in the quality of life" and highlighting effects like social aggression and drug use. Even the digital revolution gets a mention: "Today's media do enable us to communicate and to share our knowledge and affections. Yet at times they also shield us from direct contact with the pain, the fears, and the joys of others and the complexity of their personal experiences."