Peter CostelloCompanion and Study Guide to the Encyclical Praise be to You by Pope Francis
By Fr Eamonn Conway & Cathal Barry, with a foreword by Éamonn Meehan and a prologue by Archbishop Eamon Martin
Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home
by Pope Francis
(Veritas, €4.99; Kindle edition, Amazon Whispernet, £7.99)
Few papal encyclicals have been as eagerly awaited, or as warmly and widely received, as the ‘Green Encyclical’ of Pope Francis.
Of course, there were notes of disapproval in some quarters, notably in the USA, among climate change sceptics. But the document has set a seal on the tone and temper of this pontificate, signified perhaps by the fact that it was written in Italian, the Argentinean Pope’s mother tongue so to speak, or at least the language of his own family home.
There was no version in Latin. This has happened in the past. The most notable recent encyclical written in a language other than Latin was Mit Brennender Sorge (“With Burning Anxiety”), addressed by Pope Pius XI to the bishops of Germany in March 1937.
The purpose of Mit Brennender Sorge was to condemn actions of the German government. The document was a solemn warning. So, in our present context, is Laudato Si’.
But for the ordinary person an encyclical can prove difficult to read, even when, as in the case of Laudato Si’, it is written with clarity and concern. Hence the need for some sort of reader’s guide. This is exactly what the publication of Fr Eamonn Conway and Cathal Barry achieves. For this reason, it will be warmly welcomed by all those who are anxious to follow the path to the future that the Pope points towards.
The authors take the reader stage by stage though the encyclical, from its opening concern with the present state of the world, moving forward through the gospel of creation, the roots of the current crisis in thoughtless human action, before developing the ideas on integral ecology through which both the spiritual and the true material needs of humanity can be met.
The Pope, who had the advice of some 160 experts, compresses a great deal into his document. But the authors of the guide carefully unpack it all, again with clarity and concern.
But this is a “companion and a guide” – the actual journey, the true pilgrimage of humanity, will have to be undertaken by each individual. And this is where the encyclical comes home to every parish, every family and every individual.
To follow what the Pope puts forward will require a change of attitude by every parish, family and individual too.
It is disappointing, therefore, that in the wake of the Pope’s encyclical, one Dublin parish announced that the garden around the church (dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary) will be paved over to make a car park, ostensibly with the aim of encouraging more people to come to Mass. It seems that if the parishioners cannot drive to mass, they don’t want to go.
Now among the Jewish community the Sabbath requires them to walk to the synagogue. No parish in our cities is so large that people cannot walk to Mass too.
But as we all know few people can be separated from their cars. The effect of this on the environment in terms of pollution, oil politics, road deaths and so on, hardly ever impinges on the minds of many. Perhaps walking to Mass is something every parish ought to encourage.
And then there is the present controversy over water supply. Nearly half the country sees water as human right. So indeed it is, especially in the developing world, as Trócaire point out so often.
Clean water
Water could indeed be supplied free, but that it not the problem. The problem is what we all do with the clean water we receive. We soil, pollute, infect and contaminate it, with sewage, with wastes of all kinds, with antibiotics, with viruses, with high levels of oestrogen (an unexpected outcome of birth control pills); this is where the real cost to the community lies, in recycling water.
Water is a finite product. There is only so much of it in the world, what was, so to speak, “present at the creation”. We owe water a duty of care. That is not a human right, but a human responsibility.
It is this responsibility, the responsibility of all mature Christians, of which the Pope reminds us. Preserving “our common home” does not begin in the developing world. In begins, as I say, in our parish, our family, and in each person’s heart, and (so the Pope reminds us) every person’s soul.
Laudato Si’ is a landmark document. But it is up to all of us, in our own selves to respond to it in every aspect of our daily lives. This book by Fr Eamon Conway and Cathal Barry will help us achieve that.