Care for our common home
THIS week Pope Francis has visited Cuba and the US, and used the opportunity to extend his challenge to all humanity, especially world leaders, to heed his call: “Climate change is a problem which can no longer be left to a future generation.”
In 1224 Francis of Assisi composed his Canticle of the Sun or Canticle of all Creatures, which illustrates how he regarded himself as related to all creation, referring to Mother Earth, Brother Sun, Sister Moon.
This close identification with nature has led to Francis becoming the patron saint of ecology.
In June, almost 800 years later, Francis’ namesake, Pope Francis, issued a historic document unique in the chequered history of the papacy, endorsing this special, even sacred, relationship with nature. The 184 page encyclical on the environment is entitled Laudato Si, meaning “Praise Be To You”, taken directly from The Canticle, venerating the entire Earth as the work of the creator.
The Pope says, “This Earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth.”
Having consulted the work of dozens of scientists, theologians, scholars from various fields and previous popes, he has produced a work which it is generally agreed aligns science and religion.
An encyclical is traditionally delivered from St Peter’s Square to the more than one b i l l i o n C a t h o l i c s worldwide, but Francis has directed this to every person on the planet, emphasising just how crucial he regards the issue. “Doomsday predictions”, he warns, “can no longer be met with irony or disdain.”
As the first pope from the developing world, Francis has broken with tradition in numerous surprising and courageous ways, with ideas shaped not in religious seminaries, but in the real life of the slums of Buenos Aires.
His is a challenging, existential and ethical vision, not seen before in the rarefied surroundings of the Vatican.
This wider perception includes every aspect of life on this planet, with no distinctions drawn between religious, social, and environmental spheres, seen as one complex, universal crisis, the solution to which demands a “bold cultural revolution”.
So, care of the environment calls for serious attention to recycling, conserving natural resources, particularly water, but also a much more far-reaching and drastic change in “lifestyle, production and consumption”, away from unsustainable habits to a more mindful existence. Loss of bio-diversity means the extinction of plant and animal species never to be recovered.
Francis insists we acknowledge that we humans are responsible for the environmental climatechange crisis, which affects poor communities far more drastically than rich, as they lack the resources to adapt or protect themselves from natural disasters. Global inequality has caused a decline in the quality of human life, an alarming breakdown in a sense of responsibility for fellow communities. So Francis’s ethical concerns condemn the contemporary commitment to material possessions, consumerism, reliance on fossil fuels.
He hits out again at our exploitative capitalist economy and the prioritising of profit, treating human beings as commodities; a throwaway culture of abandoning those who are perceived as not serving commercial interests, particularly children and the elderly.
Francis clearly regards environmental rights and human rights as inextricably linked, disregard of any aspect leading to degradation of the other. However, despite the dire consequences of doing nothing about the present crisis, Francis, true to his Christian faith, discerns light at the end of this human-created situation.
“Yet all is not lost” he says. “Human beings, while capable of the worst, are also capable of rising above themselves, choosing again what is good, and making a new start.”
There has already been considerable criticism of this hard-hitting document, especially from the American right. Jeb Bush, Republican Presidential hopeful and a Catholic convert, who has not read the encyclical, said, “I don’t get economic policies from my bishops or my cardinals or my Pope. I think religion ought to be about making us better as people and less about things that end up getting into the p o l i t i c a l realm.” A breathtakingly ignorant statem e n t , displaying exactly the kind of attempt at compartmentalisation of life censured in the encyclical.
A century earlier, in a very different cultural and religious context, the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi reflected his belief in the unbroken link between human, animal and planetary rights. His commitment to ahimsa, the Sanskrit term meaning “do no harm”, “avoid violence”, linked to his satyagraha principle (“truth force”), developed in South Africa, urged striving for human rights according to the principles of compassion and nonviolence.
Gandhi, too, condemned the insatiable pursuit of material prosperity, flagrant misuse of non-renewable resources, growing pollution in cities, and disregard for the fate of the poor. He saw the Earth as a living organism, believing every living thing has autonomy and purpose, which should lead to a reverence for each life and the necessity of co-operating with, not exploiting, nature.
Last month President Obama added his voice to these calls to save the planet, introducing a plan to reduce toxic carbon emissions, saying “we are the last generation able to halt climate change”.
Obama, Pope Francis and Gandhi speak with one voice in drawing attention to the indivisibility of life and “care for our common home”.
Diesel has a PhD in religious studies from the University of Natal and has written widely on women and religion. Post is printed and published by Independent Newspapers KwaZuluNatal, 18 Osborne Street, Durban, for the proprietors and publishers, Independent Newspapers (Pty) Limited, at 18 Osborne Street, Durban. The copyright in the literary and artistic works contained in this newspaper and its supplements, as well as in the published editions and any other content or material (including in any online version), belongs exclusively to Independent Newspapers (Pty) Limited unless otherwise stated. The copyright, including the reproduction and adaptation of any content or material contained in this newspaper and its supplements, is expressly reserved to the publisher, Independent Newspapers (Pty) Limited, under Section 12(7) of the Copyright Act of 1978. Post has committed itself to the Press Code of Professional Practice, which prescribes that news must be reported in a truthful, accurate, fair and balanced manner. If you feel we don’t live up to the Press Code, please contact The Press Ombudsman in writing at 2nd Floor, 7 St David’s Park, St David’s Place, Parktown, 2193 or PO Box 47221, Parklands 2121, or e-mail pressombudsman@ombudsman. org.za (www.ombudsman.org.za).