Sandpiper: Catholic Diocese of Sandhurst - page 1

ENCYCLICALLETTER
LAUDATOSI’
OFTHEHOLYFATHERFRANCIS
ONCAREFOROURCOMMONHOME
1.
“LAUDATO SI’, mi’ Signore” – “Praise be to you, my Lord”.
In the words of this beautiful
canticle, Saint Francis ofAssisi reminds us that our common home is like a sisterwithwhomwe share
our life and abeautifulmotherwho opens her arms to embrace us. “Praisebe to you, myLord, through
our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with coloured
flowers andherbs”.
1
2.
This sister now cries out tous because of the harmwe have inflicted on her byour irresponsible
use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her
lords andmasters, 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 thewater, 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 aremade up of her elements, we breathe her air andwe
receive life and refreshment fromherwaters.
Nothing in thisworld 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 goodwill”. Now, faced aswe arewith global environmental deterioration, Iwish to address
every person living on this planet. In myApostolic Exhortation
Evangelii Gaudium
, I wrote to all the
members of theChurchwith the aim of encouraging ongoingmissionary renewal. In this Encyclical, I
would like to enter intodialoguewith all people about our common home.
1
Canticleof theCreatures
, in
Francis of Assisi:EarlyDocuments
, vol. 1,NewYork-London-Manila, 1999, 113-114.
1 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,...106
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