Yesterday, the Pope’s historic
environmental encyclical was
published. The document is
almost 200 pages long, which
means that most of us won’t
read it, at least not all of it.
So here are 12 things Pagans
should know about the Pope’s
environmental encyclical:
1. The Pope acknowledges
the “human origins of the
ecological crisis” (¶ 101),
specifically that global
warming is mostly due to the
great concentration of
greenhouse gases which are
released “mainly” as a result of human activity. He calls for
the progressive replacement “without delay” of
technologies that use fossil fuels. (¶ 165)
2. The Pope calls access to safe drinkable water “a basic
and universal human right.” (¶ 11) (Take that Nestle!)
3. The Pope personifies the earth. He opens the encyclical
with words from St. Francis, calling the Earth “Sister” (¶¶ 1,
2, 53) and “Mother” (¶¶ 1, 92) This comes from the hymn of
St. Francis’ “Canticle of Creatures”. However, he does not
refer to “Gaia” or any other goddess, and makes a point of
saying that he is not “divinizing” the earth. (¶ 90)
4. The Pope recognizes that we are part of the Earth.
“Nature cannot be regarded as something separate from
ourselves or as a mere setting in which we live,” he says, “We
are part of nature, included in it and thus in constant
interaction with it.” (¶ 139) “[O]ur very bodies are made up of
her elements, we breathe her air and we receive life and
refreshment from her waters.” (¶ 2) This last sentence will
sound familiar to many Pagans. In fact, it closely resembles
language from “A Pagan Community Statement on the
Environment.”
5. The Pope rejects Gnostic Christianity. “Christianity
does not reject matter,” he says. (¶ 235) According to the
Pope, Jesus “was far removed from philosophies which
despised the body, matter, and the things of the world.” (¶
98) He condemns those “unhealthy dualisms” which marked
some Christian thinkers and “disfigured the Gospel.” (¶ 98)
6. The Pope recognizes that we are part of a vast
interconnected system. No less than 8 times throughout the
encyclical, the Pope observes that “everything is
interconnected,” a fact which, he says, “cannot be emphasized
enough.” (¶¶ 16, 42, 70, 91, 111, 117, 138, 240)
7. The Pope condemns extreme
anthropocentrism, but emphasizes
humanity’s uniqueness. Although the
Pope criticizes “distorted” or “excessive”
anthropocentrism (¶¶ 69, 116), he
nevertheless insists on humanity’s “pre-
eminence” (¶ 90) and “superiority” (¶
220). He eschews “biocentrism” (¶ 118)
and declines to “put all living beings on
the same level.” (¶ 90)
8. The Pope reinterprets the
command in Genesis to exercise
“dominion” over all the earth. He rejects the notion that
being created in God’s image and being given “dominion”
over the earth justifies absolute domination over nature.
Instead, he says, a correct reading of Genesis, reads that
language in the context of the commands to “till and keep,”
the latter word meaning “caring, protecting, overseeing and
preserving” which “implies a relationship of mutual
responsibility between human beings and nature.” (¶ 67)
9. The Pope calls for a “radical change” in our
understanding of the economy and progress. (¶ 171) He
condemns the “deification” of the market” (¶ 56) and a
“magical conception of the market” (¶ 190) (referring
apparently to the “invisible hand”). He says, “The
environment is one of those goods that cannot be adequately
safeguarded or promoted by market forces” (¶ 190), and so he
disapproves of the idea of carbon credits, which would allow
wealthy countries to continue their excessive consumption (¶
117). The Pope also attacks the “modern myth of unlimited
material progress” (¶ 78) and observes that economic
development does not always result in a higher quality of life
for people, and frequently diminishes people’s quality of life
(¶ 194). While he doesn’t go so far as to call for an anti-
capitalist revolution, he does speak of the “subordination of
private property” to the “global common good.” (¶¶ 93, 169).
“The Christian tradition has never recognized the right to
private property as absolute or inviolable, and has stressed the
social purpose of all forms of private property.” (¶ 93)
“[T]here is always a social mortgage on all private property,”
he says, quoting John Paul II. (¶ 93)
10. The Pope calls for an “ecological conversion” of
individuals and communities. (¶¶ 216, 219) The Pope warns
us against seeking only technological solutions to the
environmental crisis. (¶ 144) He calls us to question
“question the the logic which underlies present-day culture.”(¶
197) He also calls for an “environmental education,” which
includes a critique of the myths of modernity, which he lists
as “individualism, unlimited progress, competition,
consumerism, the unregulated market.” (¶ 210). And he
observes that we need a spirituality capable of inspiring us to
protect the planet (¶ 216), a sentiment which was also echoed
in “A Pagan Community Statement on the Environment.”
11. The Pope sees the ecological crisis and poverty as
related, and he rejects population control as a solution.
Throughout the encyclical, the Pope emphasizes the “intimate
relationship between the poor and the fragility of the
planet” (¶ 16) He sees “the cry of the earth and the cry of the
poor” as one. (¶ 49) The Pope condemns proposals to reduce
birth rates as an example of blame-shifting: “To blame
population growth instead of extreme and selective
consumerism on the part of some, is one way of refusing to
face the issues. It is an attempt to legitimize the present
model of distribution, where a minority believes that it has the
right to consume in a way which can never be universalized,
since the planet could not even contain the waste products of
such consumption.” (¶ 50) The also Pope speaks of an
“ecological debt” owed by the global north to the global
south. (¶ 51)
12. The Pope connects the “right to life” to the protection
of the environment. He suggests that the same principles
which move us to defend the environment should be applied
to human life. (¶ 136) The Pope sees our disregard of the
poor, the disabled, and human embryos as connected to our
disregard of nature. (¶ 117) “Since everything is interrelated,
concern for the protection of nature is also incompatible with
the justification of abortion,” he says, “How can we genuinely
teach the importance of concern for other vulnerable beings,
however troublesome or inconvenient they may be, if we fail
to protect a human embryo, even when its presence is
uncomfortable and creates difficulties?” (¶ 120)
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