Encyclical “Laudato si'”: the main extracts chosen by “La Croix”

“My appeal: The urgent challenge of safeguarding our common home includes the concern to unite the entire human family in the search for sustainable and integral development, because we know that things can change. The Creator does not abandon us, never backtracks on his plan of love, never repents of having created us. Humanity still has the capacity to collaborate in building our common home.

I wish to greet, encourage and thank all those who, in the most varied sectors of human activity, are working to ensure the safeguarding of the home we share. Those who are striving vigorously to confront the dramatic consequences of environmental degradation on the lives of the world's poorest deserve special gratitude. Young people are calling on us for change. They wonder how it is possible to claim to be building a better future without thinking of the environmental crisis and the suffering of the excluded" (n. 13).

"Technology, linked to the financial sectors, which claims to be the only solution to problems, is usually incapable of seeing the mystery of the multiple relationships that exist between things, and consequently sometimes solves one problem by creating another." "Modern anthropocentrism has ended up placing technical reason above reality. Life is being abandoned to circumstances conditioned by technology, understood as the principal means of interpreting existence" (n. 20).

“(…) When we propose a vision of nature solely as an object of profit and interest, this also has serious consequences for society. The vision that consolidates the arbitrariness of the strongest has fostered immense inequalities, injustices and violence for the greater part of humanity, because resources end up belonging to the first to arrive or to the one with the most power: the winner takes all. The ideal of harmony, justice, fraternity and peace that Jesus proposes is the antithesis of such a model… ' It must not be so among you: on the contrary, whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant' (Mt 20:25-26)” (n. 82).

“(…) An integral ecology requires an openness to categories that transcend the language of mathematics or biology, and direct us toward the essence of what it means to be human. Just as happens when we fall in love with someone… This conviction cannot be dismissed with contempt as irrational romanticism, because it has consequences for the opinions that determine our behavior.

If we approach nature and the environment without this openness to wonder and amazement, if we no longer speak the language of fraternity and beauty in our relationship with the world, our attitudes will be those of the dominator, the consumer or the pure exploiter of resources, incapable of setting limits to their immediate interests. On the other hand, if we feel intimately united with all that exists, sobriety and concern for protection will spring forth spontaneously. The poverty and austerity of Saint Francis were not a purely external asceticism, but something more radical: a renunciation of transforming reality into a pure object of use and domination" (n. 11).

"We are not God. The earth precedes us and was given to us." This allows us to respond to an accusation made against Judeo-Christian thought: it has been said that, starting from the Genesis story which invites us to "dominate" the earth (Gen 1:28), we would encourage the wild exploitation of nature by presenting an image of human beings as dominators and destroyers.

This is not a correct interpretation of the Bible, as the Church understands it. While it is true that we Christians have sometimes misinterpreted the Scriptures, today we must strongly reject the idea that, because we were created in the image of God and have the mission to rule the earth, absolute dominion over other creatures ensues. It is important to read the biblical texts in their context, with an adequate hermeneutic, and to remember that they invite us to “cultivate and tend” the garden of the world (Gen 2:15).

While “cultivate” means to plow, clear, or work, “keep” means to protect, safeguard, preserve, care for, and watch over. This implies a relationship of responsible reciprocity between human beings and nature. Each community can take from the bounty of the earth what it needs to survive, but it also has a duty to safeguard it and ensure its continued fertility for future generations; for, ultimately, “the earth is the Lord’s” (Ps. 24:1), "the earth and all that is in it" belong to him (Dt 10:14). For this reason, God denies any claim to absolute ownership: " The earth shall not be sold without loss of all rights, for the earth is mine, and you are only strangers and guests to me" (Lv 25:23)" (n. 67).

"Why include in this text, addressed to all people of good will, a chapter that refers to convictions of faith? I am aware that, in the fields of politics and thought, some strongly reject the idea of ​​a Creator, or consider it so unimportant that they relegate to the realm of the irrational the richness that religions can offer for an integral ecology and for the full development of humanity. At other times, they are considered a subculture that must only be tolerated. However, science and religion, which offer different approaches to reality, can enter into an intense and fruitful dialogue for both" (n. 62).