Posted on 06/18/2015 3:27:34 PM PDT by NYer
Pope Francis’ second encyclical “Laudato Si” was released this morning by the Holy See…and it’s pretty epic. It’s on ecology, the environment, creation, and much, much more! Despite some in the media reducing its contents to whatever is socio-politically controversial (ahem…climate change) there’s much more to this encyclical than what the media will no doubt focus on. Here are 10 things in Laudato Si (“Praise be to you”) you won’t hear about from the media…and this is just the tip of the iceberg!
“The acceptance of our bodies as God’s gift is vital for welcoming and accepting the entire world as a gift from the Father and our common home, whereas thinking that we enjoy absolute power over our own bodies turns, often subtly, into thinking that we enjoy absolute power over creation. Learning to accept our body, to care for it and to respect its fullest meaning, is an essential element of any genuine human ecology. Also, valuing one’s own body in its femininity or masculinity is necessary if I am going to be able to recognize myself in an encounter with someone who is different. In this way we can joyfully accept the specific gifts of another man or woman, the work of God the Creator, and find mutual enrichment. It is not a healthy attitude which would seek “to cancel out sexual difference because it no longer knows how to confront it”. (155)
“In the absence of objective truths or sound principles other than the satisfaction of our own desires and immediate needs, what limits can be placed on human trafficking, organized crime, the drug trade, commerce in blood diamonds and the fur of endangered species? Is it not the same relativistic logic which justifies buying the organs of the poor for resale or use in experimentation, or eliminating children because they are not what their parents wanted?” (123)
“Many people know that our current progress and the mere amassing of things and pleasures are not enough to give meaning and joy to the human heart, yet they feel unable to give up what the market sets before them. In those countries which should be making the greatest changes in consumer habits, young people have a new ecological sensitivity and a generous spirit, and some of them are making admirable efforts to protect the environment. At the same time, they have grown up in a milieu of extreme consumerism and affluence which makes it difficult to develop other habits.” (209)
Since the market tends to promote extreme consumerism in an effort to sell its products, people can easily get caught up in a whirlwind of needless buying and spending. Compulsive consumerism is one example of how the techno-economic paradigm affects individuals. Romano Guardini had already foreseen this: “The gadgets and technics forced upon him by the patterns of machine production and of abstract planning mass man accepts quite simply; they are the forms of life itself. To either a greater or lesser degree mass man is convinced that his conformity is both reasonable and just”. This paradigm leads people to believe that they are free as long as they have the supposed freedom to consume. But those really free are the minority who wield economic and financial power. Amid this confusion, postmodern humanity has not yet achieved a new self-awareness capable of offering guidance and direction, and this lack of identity is a source of anxiety. We have too many means and only a few insubstantial ends. (203)
“…many problems of today’s world stem from the tendency, at times unconscious, to make the method and aims of science and technology an epistemological paradigm which shapes the lives of individuals and the workings of society. The effects of imposing this model on reality as a whole, human and social, are seen in the deterioration of the environment, but this is just one sign of a reductionism which affects every aspect of human and social life.” (107)
“Underlying the principle of the common good is respect for the human person as such, endowed with basic and inalienable rights ordered to his or her integral development. It has also to do with the overall welfare of society and the development of a variety of intermediate groups, applying the principle of subsidiarity. Outstanding among those groups is the family, as the basic cell of society.” (157)
Here, though, I would stress the great importance of the family, which is “the place in which life – the gift of God – can be properly welcomed and protected against the many attacks to which it is exposed, and can develop in accordance with what constitutes authentic human growth. In the face of the so-called culture of death, the family is the heart of the culture of life”.[149] In the family we first learn how to show love and respect for life; we are taught the proper use of things, order and cleanliness, respect for the local ecosystem and care for all creatures. In the family we receive an integral education, which enables us to grow harmoniously in personal maturity. In the family we learn to ask without demanding, to say “thank you” as an expression of genuine gratitude for what we have been given, to control our aggressivity and greed, and to ask forgiveness when we have caused harm. These simple gestures of heartfelt courtesy help to create a culture of shared life and respect for our surroundings. (213)
Besides, we know that approximately a third of all food produced is discarded, and “whenever food is thrown out it is as if it were stolen from the table of the poor”. (50)
“Instead of resolving the problems of the poor and thinking of how the world can be different, some can only propose a reduction in the birth rate. At times, developing countries face forms of international pressure which make economic assistance contingent on certain policies of “reproductive health”.” (50)
Yet “while it is true that an unequal distribution of the population and of available resources creates obstacles to development and a sustainable use of the environment, it must nonetheless be recognized that demographic growth is fully compatible with an integral and shared development”. To blame population growth instead of extreme and selective consumerism on the part of some, is one way of refusing to face the issues. (50)
“It is in the Eucharist that all that has been created finds its greatest exaltation. Grace, which tends to manifest itself tangibly, found unsurpassable expression when God himself became man and gave himself as food for his creatures. The Lord, in the culmination of the mystery of the Incarnation, chose to reach our intimate depths through a fragment of matter. He comes not from above, but from within, he comes that we might find him in this world of ours. In the Eucharist, fullness is already achieved; it is the living centre of the universe, the overflowing core of love and of inexhaustible life. Joined to the incarnate Son, present in the Eucharist, the whole cosmos gives thanks to God. Indeed the Eucharist is itself an act of cosmic love: “Yes, cosmic! Because even when it is celebrated on the humble altar of a country church, the Eucharist is always in some way celebrated on the altar of the world”. The Eucharist joins heaven and earth; it embraces and penetrates all creation. The world which came forth from God’s hands returns to him in blessed and undivided adoration…” (236)
Ping!
I was just listing to Al Kresta on EWTN. He had two guests who spoke o the business and the open debate that the Pope mentioned and encouraged.
One of their comments was something like “It’s dicey because the faith and morals are mixed in with the business and the weather.”
who spoke to the
When I’ve read it - I don’t have time right now - I’ll consider forming an opinion, independent of anyone else’s comments.
Home reading bkmk.
Well, I hate to say it, but I have no intention of reading this stupid thing. Apparently it’s book length, and has nothing new to say—except to push the currently popular liberal trash.
I have a good collection of recent encyclicals on my bookshelves, but I’m certainly not going to buy this one, or read it. Maybe some good Freepers will do so, people I trust, and let us know what it says. Just like I wouldn’t listen to Obama speak for anything, but I appreciate it when someone here does, or posts a transcript or whatever.
2. Relativism — “In the absence of objective truths....” (123) This has been point in the advance of the socialists and communists in the attack against Christianity and Western Civilization for the last 50 years. Its theory of moral relativism and that there are NO objective truths, but only “my truth.”
When listening to various radio stations while driving from Indiana to Maryland on Tuesday and Wednesday and the discussion of Rachel Dolezal, she kept saying “in my personal truth” she is Black i.e. African-American. Whether or not she actually is, because she doubts that she was born to her parents, is only true if she believes it to be true and she expects everyone else to accept ‘her truth.’
And this leads me back to my memories of college in the late 1960s and the creeping in of the theory of ‘moral relativism.’ It was something that I saw as dangerous back then and have been more convinced of it in the 50 years since then.
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