How to Read Pope Francis on the Environment
Interviewee: Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim, co-directors, The Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale University
Interviewer: Robert McMahon, Editor
June 18, 2015
The new encyclical from Pope Francis about the environment, Laudato Si, sharply criticizes man-made abuses of the environment and lays out the church's most detailed case for urgent moves to mitigate climate change. The encyclical, a long, formal letter that conveys the pope's teachings, is both a call to action on the global stage and new guidance for how Catholics should regard ecology, say Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim of Yale University's Forum on Religion and Ecology, in a written Q&A. "While discussions about social justice have been robust in Catholic and Christian contexts, this encyclical marks the first time social and environmental concerns are brought together," write Tucker and Grim.
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The Vatican says this is a religious rather than a political document but isn't it intended as a call to environmental activism?
The encyclical is a call to environmental activism as well as a religious statement that reaches across simply Catholic doctrinal boundaries.
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What happens next in guidance for Catholics? Will there be more consistent appeals for environmental awareness from church pulpits? A greater move toward using alternative energies?
One option is the introduction of new waves of "retrieval," "reevaluation," and "reconstruction" within religious traditions broadly considered. For example, in Catholic seminaries will the curriculum for the training of priests actually be affected? Will Catholic priests learn how to think theologically about integral ecology and Catholic doctrines?
If seminaries and Catholic education undertake these curricular considerations it will mean a resurgence of attention to human-earth interactions in scripture, commentaries (theology), and church history. This is what we call "retrieval." The act of reflecting on its implications for the present is "reevaluation"a dialogue across all the positions, schools, factions within a religion. Finally, if insight emerges that indeed we are connected and interdependent with the abiotic and biotic systems of the planet, religions need to "reconstruct" themselves so that values of flourishing life are apparent in rituals, teachings, trainings, and actions.
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Read more:
http://www.cfr.org/holy-seevatican/read-pope-francis-environment/p36665