Pope Francis on the environmental crisis.

• Author: Waterman, A.M.C.

In the early months of his papacy, Francis promulgated the apostolic exhortation Evangelii psaudinm (The joy of the Gospel), which declared the evangelical basis of his commitment to environmental protection: "An authentic faith ... always involves a deep desire to change the world, to transmit values, to leave this earth somehow better than we found it. We love this magnificent planet on which God has put us ... The earth is our common home and all of us are brothers and sisters" (2013, 182).

The encyclical Laudato si' ("Praise be to thee"), which appeared in May 2015, is an extended exposition of that theme (Francis 2015, 3). (1) With the possible exception of John Paul II's encyclical Centesimas annus in 1991, Laudato si' has attracted more attention, both favorable and unfavorable, than any papal utterance since Humanae vitae by Paul VI in 1968.

The evident degradation of the human environment appears to many, including some of the best informed, to be a matter of life and death: if not for ourselves, then for our children and grandchildren. Reliable diagnoses of causes and well-informed consideration of cures are essential for public policy. The matter has attracted a wide range of responses, in many of which it is hard to disentangle objective analysis from sectional interest and ideological bias. Whether the Christian religion can throw any light on such questions about the environment is important for millions worldwide. Pope Francis makes a very strong claim that it can.

It is therefore my purpose in this article to examine that claim critically. In the first section, I attempt a summary. In the second, I attend to the intellectual context. In the last, I consider some of the more contentious issues the encyclical raises: in economics, in biological science, and in theology.

What Does the Encyclical Say?

Laudato si, mi Signore, per sora nostra matre Terra, la quale ne sustenta et gouerna, et produce diuersi fructi con colorid fior et herba.

--Francis of Assisi, "Cantico del sole," c. 1224

Laudato si'is "addressed to every person living on this planet" (3). It is inspired by St. Francis of Assisi, whom John Paul II in 1979 declared to be "the patron saint of all who study and work in the area of ecology" (10, my translation). The seventh stanza of that saint's perennially popular "Cantico del sole" celebrates "Our Sister, Mother Earth who feeds us and rules us" and is quoted at the outset of Laudato si' (1). The theme of the encyclical is "care for our common home." It echoes Paul VI, John Paul II, and Benedict XVTs judgment in perceiving the ecological crisis to be a consequence of the "irresponsible behaviour" of human beings (6). It has six chapters.

Taking Stock

The first of these chapters, "What Is Happening to Our Common Home," deals with pollution and climate change (20-25), the availability of water (27-31), loss of biodiversity (32-42), decline in the quality of human life and the breakdown of society (43-47), global inequality (48-52), "weak responses" to these challenges (53-59), and a variety of options (60-61). It seems probable that this chapter has been the one most carefully read--perhaps, indeed, the only chapter most people have read. At any rate, its matter appears to have attracted the most attention.

Pollution of the atmosphere, soil, and water undermines the health of millions. Accumulation of nonbiodegradable, toxic, and radioactive industrial waste is beginning to make our common home look like "an immense pile of filth" (21). Much of this pollution is a consequence of our "throwaway culture." Therefore, "technology, linked to business interests" is not "the only way of solving these problems" and may indeed make matters worse (22, 20). We must limit our use of nonrenewable resources and recycle those we do use.

Continuing use of fossil fuels causes carbonic, sulfurous, and nitric pollution--the first of which is directly linked to global warming and its train of ecological evil--which, by increasing the acidification of the oceans, "compromise the marine food chain" (20, 23, 24). Rich nations' increasing demand for water and increasing amounts of chemical pollution threaten the availability of potable water for millions, with far-reaching effects on nutrition, health, food production, and poverty.

Industrial and agricultural expansion have encroached on forests and woodlands, bringing loss of species diversification, and--in the case of tropical rain forests (the "lungs of our planet" [90])--diminishing their capacity to absorb carbon dioxide. It has also produced "the disproportionate and unruly growth of many cities," with consequent "decline in the quality of human life" and even "the breakdown of society" (44). And because industrialization has been controlled by advanced capitalist nations in the Northern Hemisphere, many of its social costs have been externalized upon the economically subject South, thus increasing global inequality (48-52).

Most of these claims are widely known and generally--if not universally--accepted, yet official response has been weak, says Francis. We have come to expect only "superficial rhetoric, sporadic acts of philanthropy and perfunctory expressions of concern for the environment" (54).

The second chapter of Laudato si', on the "Gospel of creation," abruptly changes the subject. "Why should this document, addressed to all people of goodwill, include a chapter dealing with the convictions of believers?" (62): because there is "light offered by faith" (62-63), much of which may be found in "the wisdom of the biblical accounts" (65-75); because it is salutary to be reminded of "the mystery of the universe" (76-83); because of "the message of each creature in the harmony of creation" (84-88); because there is "a universal communion" of all living beings (89-92); because there is a "common destination of goods" (93-95), for "God created the world for everyone" (93); and because "before the gaze of Jesus" (96-100) "the very flowers of the field and the birds which his human eyes contemplated are now imbued with his radiant presence" (100). This chapter rests on the assumption that "science and religion, with their distinctive approaches to understanding reality, can enter into . . . dialogue fruitful for both" (62).

The most substantial section of this chapter (65-75) examines "what the great biblical narratives say about the relationship of human beings with the world" (65). It rebuts (effectively, in my opinion) the charge sometimes brought against biblical religion: that the "dominion" granted to humankind (Gen. 1:28) "has encouraged the unbridled exploitation of nature" (67). Rather, Francis argues, it is human sin that has disrupted our "three fundamental ... relationships: with God, with our neighbour and with the earth itself' (66).

We must distinguish "nature" from "creation" (76). The universe did not come about by "chance" but by a "decision" of God" (77). Though we may study and understand "nature," God's "creation" is inherently mysterious. Therefore, it is "faith" that "allows us to interpret the meaning and the mysterious beauty" of the "unfolding" of "creation" (79).

Chapter 3 addresses "[t]he human roots of the ecological crisis." It is based on the assumption--stated at the beginning of the encyclical--that the crisis is caused not by ineluctable natural constraints but by "the violence present in our hearts, wounded by sin" (2). Following his predecessor's critique of technology (in Caritas in veritate [Benedict XVI 2009, 69-72]), Francis identifies as a manifestation of this "violence" the so-called technocratic paradigm, which "exalts the concept of a subject who, using logical and rational procedures, progressively approaches and gains control over an external object" (106). "Technological products are not neutral"; they condition lifestyles and shape social possibilities "dictated by the interests of certain powerful social groups" (107). "Genuine ethical horizons" are obliterated, and "life gradually becomes a surrender to situations created by technology, itself viewed as the principal key to the meaning of existence" (110). Therefore, we need "a distinctive way of looking at things"--policies, education, lifestyle, spirituality--that may "generate resistance to the assault of the technocratic paradigm" (111). Francis calls for "a bold cultural revolution" (114).

What the pope calls "modernity" evinces "an excessive anthropocentrism" (116). The "human being declares independence from reality" and "behaves with absolute dominion" (117). "Man sets himself up as God and thus ends up provoking a rebellion on the part of nature" (117; see also John Paul II 1991, 37). Therefore, "the ecological crisis" is a sign of "the ethical, cultural and spiritual crisis of modernity" (119), for anthropocentrism produces "a relativism which sees everything as irrelevant unless it serves one's own immediate interests" (122). "Objective truth and universally valid principles are no longer upheld" (123).

The rest of chapter 3 descends to particularity. There is a "need to protect employment" (124-29), for "we were created with a vocation to work" (128). And we must be aware of "new biological technologies" (130-36) and understand their possibilities for both good and ill.

The fourth chapter introduces what appears to be a new concept: that of "integral ecology" (137). It begins with the usual definition of "ecology": a scientific study of the relations of organisms to one another and to their surroundings (138). But because "everything is interconnected," this scientific study "necessarily entails reflection and debate about the conditions required for the life and survival of [human] society" (138). It is a short step from this view to the bold assertion, quoted from Caritas in veritate (Benedict XVI 2009, 51), that "every violation of solidarity and civic friendship harms the environment" (n. 116). For example, "drug use in...