The Holy See
ENCYCLICAL LETTER
LAUDATO SI’
OF THE HOLY FATHER
FRANCIS
ON CARE FOR OUR COMMON HOME
http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html
1. “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 coloured flowers and herbs”.[1]
2. 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” (Rom 8:22). We have forgotten that
we ourselves are dust of the earth (cf. Gen 2:7); our very bodies are made up of her elements, we
breathe her air and we receive life and refreshment from her waters.
Nothing in this world is indifferent to us
3. More than fifty years ago, with the world teetering on the brink of nuclear crisis, Pope Saint John
XXIII wrote an Encyclical which not only rejected war but offered a proposal for peace. He
addressed his message Pacem in Terris to the entire “Catholic world” and indeed “to all men and
women of good will”. Now, faced as we are with global environmental deterioration, I wish to
address every person living on this planet. In my Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, I wrote
to all the members of the Church with the aim of encouraging ongoing missionary renewal. In this
Encyclical, I would like to enter into dialogue with all people about our common home.
4. In 1971, eight years after Pacem in Terris, Blessed Pope Paul VI referred to the ecological
concern as “a tragic consequence” of unchecked human activity: “Due to an ill-considered
exploitation of nature, humanity runs the risk of destroying it and becoming in turn a victim of this
degradation”.[2] He spoke in similar terms to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations about the potential for an “ecological catastrophe under the effective explosion of
industrial civilization”, and stressed “the urgent need for a radical change in the conduct of
humanity”, inasmuch as “the most extraordinary scientific advances, the most amazing technical
abilities, the most astonishing economic growth, unless they are accompanied by authentic social
and moral progress, will definitively turn against man”.[3]
5. Saint John Paul II became increasingly concerned about this issue. In his first Encyclical he
warned that human beings frequently seem “to see no other meaning in their natural environment
than what serves for immediate use and consumption”.[4] Subsequently, he would call for a global
ecological conversion.[5] At the same time, he noted that little effort had been made to “safeguard
the moral conditions for an authentic human ecology”.[6] The destruction of the human
environment is extremely serious, not only because God has entrusted the world to us men and
women, but because human life is itself a gift which must be defended from various forms of
debasement. Every effort to protect and improve our world entails profound changes in “lifestyles,
models of production and consumption, and the established structures of power which today
govern societies”.[7] Authentic human development has a moral character. It presumes full respect
for the human person, but it must also be concerned for the world around us and “take into
account the nature of each being and of its mutual connection in an ordered system”.[8]
Accordingly, our human ability to transform reality must proceed in line with God’s original gift of all
that is.[9]
6. My predecessor Benedict XVI likewise proposed “eliminating the structural causes of the
dysfunctions of the world economy and correcting models of growth which have proved incapable
of ensuring respect for the environment”.[10] He observed that the world cannot be analyzed by
isolating only one of its aspects, since “the book of nature is one and indivisible”, and includes the
environment, life, sexuality, the family, social relations, and so forth. It follows that “the
deterioration of nature is closely connected to the culture which shapes human coexistence”.[11]
Pope Benedict asked us to recognize that the natural environment has been gravely damaged by
our irresponsible behaviour. The social environment has also suffered damage. Both are ultimately
due to the same evil: the notion that there are no indisputable truths to guide our lives, and hence
human freedom is limitless. We have forgotten that “man is not only a freedom which he creates
for himself. Man does not create himself. He is spirit and will, but also nature”.[12] With paternal
concern, Benedict urged us to realize that creation is harmed “where we ourselves have the final
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word, where everything is simply our property and we use it for ourselves alone. The misuse of
creation begins when we no longer recognize any higher instance than ourselves, when we see
nothing else but ourselves”.[13]
United by the same concern
7. These statements of the Popes echo the reflections of numerous scientists, philosophers,
theologians and civic groups, all of which have enriched the Church’s thinking on these questions.
Outside the Catholic Church, other Churches and Christian communities – and other religions as
well – have expressed deep concern and offered valuable reflections on issues which all of us find
disturbing. To give just one striking example, I would mention the statements made by the beloved
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, with whom we share the hope of full ecclesial communion.
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