Laudato Si’
 June 18, 2015
 LAUDATO SI’, mi’ Signore” – “Praise be to you, my Lord”
 Introduction
 Chapter One: What is Happening to Our Common Home
 Chapter Two: The Gospel of Creation
 Chapter Three: The Human Roots of the Ecological Crisis
 Chapter Four: Integral Ecology
 Chapter Five: Lines of Approach and Action
 Chapter Six: Ecological Education and Spirituality
Introduction
 “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, the water, the air and all forms of life” (no. 2).
 Papal precedent (nos. 3-9)
 St. Francis of Assisi (nos. 10-12)
 “My appeal” (nos. 13-16)
 “I urgently appeal, then, for a new dialogue about how we are
shaping the future of our planet. We need a conversation which
includes everyone, since the environmental challenge we are
undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect us all” (no. 14).
Chapter One
What is Happening to Our Common Home
 I. Pollution and Climate Change
 II. The Issue of Water
 III. Loss of Biodiversity
 IV. Decline in the Quality of Human Life and the Breakdown of Society
 V. Global Inequality
 VI. Weak Responses
 “It is remarkable how weak international political responses have been. The
failure of global summits on the environment make it plain that our politics
are subject to technology and finance. There are too many special interests,
and economic interests easily end up trumping the common good and
manipulating information so that their own plans will not be affected” (no. 54).
Chapter One: What is Happening to Our Common Home
I. Pollution and Climate Change
 “Climate change is a global problem with grave implications:
environmental, social, economic, political and for the
distribution of goods. It represents one of the principal
challenges facing humanity in our day” (Laudato Si’, no. 25).
 “Can we remain indifferent before the problems associated
with such realities as climate change?" (Pope Benedict XVI,
2010 World Day of Peace Message, no. 4).
 “The related ‘greenhouse effect’ has now reached crisis
proportions as a consequence of industrial growth, massive
urban concentrations and vastly increased energy needs”
(Pope John Paul II, 1990 World Day of Peace Message, no. 6).
Chapter One: What is Happening to Our Common Home
I. Pollution and Climate Change
Chapter One: What is Happening to Our Common Home
I. Pollution and Climate Change
https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/
https://www.climatecentral.org/gallery/graphics/rise-in-global-temperatures-since-1880
“Multiple studies published in peer-reviewed scientific journals show that 97 percent or more of actively
publishing climate scientists agree: Climate-warming trends over the past century are extremely likely due
to human activities” (NASA, “Scientific Consensus,” https://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/).
Chapter One: What is Happening to Our Common Home
I. Pollution and Climate Change
Chapter One: What is Happening to Our Common Home
I. Pollution and Climate Change
 “Climatic changes already are estimated to cause over
150,000 deaths annually” (World Health Organization,
“Climate change”).
 “Between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to
cause approximately 250,000 additional deaths per year, from
malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea and heat stress” (World Health
Organization, “Climate change and health”).
 “How can we separate, or even set at odds, the protection of
the environment and the protection of human life, including
the life of the unborn?” (Pope Benedict XVI, 2010 Address to
the Diplomatic Corps).
Chapter One: What is Happening to Our Common Home
I. Pollution and Climate Change
“This great inequality between polluters and victims makes anthropogenic climate
change into a fundamental problem of global justice” (The German Bishops,
Climate Change: A Focal Point of Global, Intergenerational and Ecological Justice, 12).
Chapter One: What is Happening to Our Common Home
I. Pollution and Climate Change
 Climate Feedback
https://climate.nasa.gov/images-of-change?id=684#684-vavilov-ice-cap-glacier-accelerates
 Tipping Point
Chapter One: What is Happening to Our Common Home
I. Pollution and Climate Change
 To stabilize global warming at 1.5°C relative to pre-
industrial levels, the IPCC recommends that “global
net anthropogenic CO2 emissions decline by about
45% from 2010 levels by 2030 ... reaching net zero
around 2050.”
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Global Warming of 1.5°C - Summary for Policymakers
Chapter One: What is Happening to Our Common Home
I. Pollution and Climate Change
https://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/tar/wg1/pdf/TAR-09.PDF
Chapter One: What is Happening to Our Common Home
I. Pollution and Climate Change
 “Faced with a climate emergency, we must take action
accordingly, in order to avoid perpetrating a brutal act of
injustice towards the poor and future generations” (Pope
Francis, “To Participants at the meeting promoted by the
Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development on the
theme: The Energy Transition and Care for our Common
Home,” June 14, 2019).

Charitable Works: “Avoiding the use of plastic and paper, reducing
water consumption, separating refuse, cooking only what can
reasonably be consumed, showing care for other living beings,
using public transport or car-pooling, planting trees, turning off
unnecessary lights, or any number of other practices” (LS, no. 211).

Social Justice: “There is an urgent need to develop policies so that,
in the next few years, the emission of carbon dioxide and other
highly polluting gases can be drastically reduced, for example,
substituting for fossil fuels and developing sources of renewable
energy” (LS, no. 26).
Chapter Two
The Gospel of Creation
I.
The Light Offered by Faith
II. The Wisdom of the Biblical Accounts
III. The Mystery of the Universe
IV. The Message of Each Creature in the Harmony of Creation
V.
A Universal Communion
VI. The Common Destination of Goods
VII. The Gaze of Jesus
Chapter Two: The Gospel of Creation
II. The Wisdom of the Biblical Accounts
 “Human life is grounded in three fundamental and closely intertwined
relationships: with God, with our neighbour and with the earth itself.
According to the Bible, these three vital relationships have been
broken, both outwardly and within us. This rupture is sin. The
harmony between the Creator, humanity and creation as a whole was
disrupted by our presuming to take the place of God and refusing to
acknowledge our creaturely limitations. This in turn distorted our
mandate to ‘have dominion’ over the earth (cf. Gen 1:28).
 “ ... fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over ...” (Gn 1:28)
 Hebrew for subdue: kabash - neutralize hostile aggressor
 Hebrew for dominion: radah - royalty and delegated authority
 “Cultivate and care for” (Gn 2:15)
Chapter Two: The Gospel of Creation
IV. The Message of Each Creature in the Harmony of Creation
 “Other living beings have a value of their own in
God’s eyes: ‘by their mere existence they bless him
and give [God] glory’” (Catechism of the Catholic
Church, no. 2416).
 First five days of Creation narrative (Gen 1:1-25):
“God saw that it was good.”
Chapter Two: The Gospel of Creation
V. A Universal Communion
 “Peace, justice and the preservation of
creation are three absolutely interconnected
themes, which cannot be separated and
treated individually” (no. 92).
Chapter Three
The Human Roots of the Ecological Crisis
I.
Technology: Creativity and Power
II. The Globalization of the Technocratic Paradigm
III. The Crisis and Effects of Modern Anthropocentrism
Chapter Three: The Human Roots of the Ecological Crisis
II. The Globalization of the Technocratic Paradigm
 One-dimensional paradigm rooted in
mastery/scientific method that only uses
instrumental reasoning and assumes all
technological advances/economic profits are
“good” without asking broader ethical
questions.
Chapter Four: Integral Ecology

138. Ecology studies the relationship between living organisms and the environment in which they develop.
This necessarily entails reflection and debate about the conditions required for the life and survival of society,
and the honesty needed to question certain models of development, production and consumption. It cannot
be emphasized enough how everything is interconnected. Time and space are not independent of one another,
and not even atoms or subatomic particles can be considered in isolation. Just as the different aspects of the
planet – physical, chemical and biological – are interrelated, so too living species are part of a network which
we will never fully explore and understand. A good part of our genetic code is shared by many living beings. It
follows that the fragmentation of knowledge and the isolation of bits of information can actually become a
form of ignorance, unless they are integrated into a broader vision of reality.

139. When we speak of the “environment”, what we really mean is a relationship existing between nature and
the society which lives in it. Nature cannot be regarded as something separate from ourselves or as a mere
setting in which we live. We are part of nature, included in it and thus in constant interaction with it.
Recognizing the reasons why a given area is polluted requires a study of the workings of society, its economy,
its behaviour patterns, and the ways it grasps reality. Given the scale of change, it is no longer possible to find
a specific, discrete answer for each part of the problem. It is essential to seek comprehensive solutions which
consider the interactions within natural systems themselves and with social systems. We are faced not with
two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis which is both
social and environmental. Strategies for a solution demand an integrated approach to combating poverty,
restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature.
Chapter Five: Lines of Approach and Action
http://www.usccb.org/about/justice-peace-and-humandevelopment/upload/Two-Feet-handout-color.pdf
Chapter Six: Ecological Education and Spirituality
 “Our goal is not to amass information or to satisfy curiosity, but rather to become painfully
aware, to dare to turn what is happening to the world into our own personal suffering and thus
to discover what each of us can do about it” (no.19).
 “More than in ideas or concepts as such, I am interested in how such a spirituality can motivate
us to a more passionate concern for the protection of our world. A commitment this lofty cannot
be sustained by doctrine alone, without a spirituality capable of inspiring us, without an ‘interior
impulse which encourages, motivates, nourishes and gives meaning to our individual and
communal activity’ (no. 216).
 217. ‘The external deserts in the world are growing, because the internal deserts have become
so vast’. For this reason, the ecological crisis is also a summons to profound interior conversion.
It must be said that some committed and prayerful Christians, with the excuse of realism and
pragmatism, tend to ridicule expressions of concern for the environment. Others are passive;
they choose not to change their habits and thus become inconsistent. So what they all need is an
‘ecological conversion’, whereby the effects of their encounter with Jesus Christ become evident
in their relationship with the world around them. Living our vocation to be protectors of God’s
handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or a secondary aspect of our
Christian experience.
Chapter Six: Ecological Education and Spirituality
 “Yet all is not lost. Human beings, while capable of the worst, are also
capable of rising above themselves, choosing again what is good, and
making a new start, despite their mental and social conditioning” (no. 205).
 “Hope would have us recognize that there is always a way out, that we can
always redirect our steps, that we can always do something to solve our
problems” (no. 61).
 “Relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the
Holy Spirit” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1817).
 “May our struggles and our concern for this planet never take away the joy
of our hope” (no. 244).