Critics of Pope's encyclical are like children -- CathNews NZ

Critics of Pope’s encyclical are like children

Tuesday, June 30th, 2015

The unvarnished truths of the Gospel, compellingly written and lovingly interpreted, make Laudato Si’ an unforgettable document. I began reading it, fascinated as to what Pope Francis would make of the science and politics of climate change. I

continued simply overwhelmed by the direct evangelical call to action, personal and collective. The encyclical is no mere commentary on the world’s current concerns – although its narrative of the facts of environmental and social degradation is succinct and discerning.

Instead, it lifts and intensifies the debate by demanding that we see these great issues of pollution, poverty and powerlessness as direct personal challenges – challenges to the way each one of us lives, to the businesses we run, the jobs we do, and the choices we make.

So, when the environmental world welcomes the Pope as a powerful ally and the religious Right dismisses him as a disingenuous radical, both have missed the essential point.

This is the Gospel call, as disconcertingly direct today as was Jesus’s confrontation with the rich young man, the scribes and the Pharisees, or the moneychangers in the Temple. That’s the unique quality of the encyclical.

It is not just the declaration of assent to a programme of international environmental action, but also the prophetic voice of the Church. It is therefore far more fundamentally disturbing and uncomfortable, demanding an individual response that will change our lives for ever.

Pope Francis is at pains to set the whole process in its religious context. He sees this encyclical as the natural development of the teaching of the Church, not as some immediate response to a secular agenda.

Firmly rooted in the Bible, he draws continual inspiration from St Francis of Assisi and develops the teachings of John Paul II and Paul VI, and even brings in the particular insight of the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew, whose long-standing commitment to environmental theology he celebrates. Continue reading