Pope Francis: Encyclical on care for our common home – Laudato si

Read the Encyclical in full here
View a video clip summarizing the Encyclical here

The encyclical, entitled “Laudato si” – “Praise be”, was released on Thursday, June 19, 2015, the first encyclical penned solely by Pope France as his previous encyclical had been written partly by his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI. The title of this encyclical is derived from Saint Francis’s Canticle of Creation, which begins: “Praise be to you, my Lord, for all your creation”.

Pope Francis begins his encyclical: “LAUDATO SI’, mi’ Signore” – “Praise be to you, my Lord”. In the words of this beautiful canticle, Saint Francis of Assisi reminds us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us. “Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with colored flowers and herbs”. This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will. The violence present in our hearts, wounded by sin, is also reflected in the symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air and in all forms of life. This is why the earth herself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor; she “groans in travail” (Romans 8:22). We have forgotten that we ourselves are dust of the earth (cf. Genesis 2:7); our very bodies are made up of her elements, we breathe her air and we receive life and refreshment from her waters.

It is an encyclical the Pope describes as both dramatic and cheerful. The chapter breakdown is as follows:
1. What is happening to our common home
2. The Gospel of creation
3. The human roots of the ecological crisis
4. Integral ecology
5. Lines of approach and action
6. Ecological education and spirituality