Excerpts from the Encyclical Letter: Laudato Si’ of the Holy Father Francis, On Care for our Common Home - 24 May 2015
The climate is a common good, belonging to all and meant for all. At the global level, it is a complex system linked to many of the essential conditions for human life. (…)
Humanity is called to recognize the need for changes in lifestyle, production and consumption, in order to combat this warming or at least the human causes which produce or aggravate it. (…)
There has been a tragic rise in the number of migrants seeking to flee from the growing poverty caused by environmental degradation. They are not recognized by international conventions as refugees; they bear the loss of the lives they have left behind, without enjoying any legal protection whatsoever. (…)
Caring for ecosystems demands far-sightedness, since no one looking for quick and easy profit is truly interested in their preservation. (…)
Inequity affects not only individuals but entire countries; it compels us to consider an ethics of international relations. (…)
A true “ecological debt” exists, particularly between global North and South, connected to commercial imbalances with effects on the environment, and the disproportionate use of natural resources by certain countries over long periods of time. (…)
We need to strengthen the conviction that we are one single human family. There are no frontiers of barriers, political or social, behind which we can hide, still less is there room for the globalization of indifference. (…)
Given the complexity of the ecological crisis and its multiple causes, we need to realize that the solutions will not emerge from just one way of interpreting and transforming reality. Respect must also be shown for the various cultural riches of different peoples, their art and poetry, their interior life and spirituality. (…)
In the concrete situation confronting us, there are a number of signs which point to what is wrong, such as environmental degradation, anxiety, a loss of the purpose of life and of community living. (…)
An inadequate presentation of Christian anthropology gave rise to a wrong understanding of the relationship between human beings and the world. Often, what was handed on was a Promethean vision of mastery of the world, which gave the impression that the protection of nature was something only the faint- hearted cared about. Instead, our “dominion” over the universe should be understood more properly in the sense of responsible stewardship. (…)
There can be no ecology without an adequate anthropology. (…)
It is essential to show special care of indigenous communities and their cultural traditions. They are not merely one minority among others, but should be the principal dialogue partners, especially when large projects affecting their land are proposed. (…)