How the Pope went Green. The Story behind “Laudato Si”, in Francis’s own words
If someone who loves you gives you a beautiful and valuable gift, how do you handle it? To treat it with contempt is to treat the giver with contempt. If you value it, you admire it, look after it; you do not disdain it; you respect it and are grateful. The damage to our planet stems from the loss of this awareness of gratitude. We have grown used to owning, but too little to thanking.
My own awareness of this truth began to take root during a meeting of the bishops of Latin America at the shrine of Aparecida, Brazil, in May 2007. I was on the committee drafting the concluding document of the meeting, and at first I was a bit annoyed that the Brazilians and bishops from other countries wanted so much in there on Amazonia. It struck me as excessive. Last year, I called a special synod on Amazonia.
What happened between these two moments? After Aparecida, I started to see news stories: for example, the government of a well-known island in the South Pacific bought lands in Samoa to transfer its population there, because in 20 years’ time the island will be under water. Another time, a missionary in the Pacific told me of when he was travelling by boat and saw a tree sticking up from the water. He asked: was that tree planted in the sea? The man steering the boat told him: no, that was once an island. And so, through many encounters, dialogues and anecdotes like these my eyes were opened. It was like an awakening. In the night you see nothing, but little by little dawn breaks and you see the day.
That was my process: serene and calm, through
information I gradually became aware of, until I became convinced of the
seriousness of the thing. What was particularly helpful were the writings of
Patriarch Bartholomew on this topic. It was a concern that I began to talk
about to others, which helped. In sharing concerns, we began to see horizons
and limits.
That’s how my ecological awareness came
about. I saw that it was of God, because it was a spiritual experience of the
sort St Ignatius describes as like drops on a sponge: gentle, silent, but
insistent. Slowly, like daybreak, an ecological vision began growing in me. I
started to see the harmonious unity of humanity and nature, and how humanity’s
fate is inseparably bound up with that of our common home.Read more…
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