Pope says concerns for ecology and equality go hand-in-hand

After recently making the fifth anniversary of his encyclical Laudato si' ("on care for our common home"), it was quite natural for Pope Francis to have a meeting with members of the communities that have begun springing up in Italy, Brazil and elsewhere, inspired by his important text on integral ecology.

The pope met with representatives of the Laudato si’ Communities last Saturday in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican. 

Some 250 men and women from sixty communities, whose mission is to spread the message of the encyclical and put it into practice, met the pope in the heart of the "Season of Creation", which runs until October 4.  

Vatican News reported that the Laudato si' Community movement was born in Italy shortly after the publication of the encyclical. Bishop Domenico Pompili of Rieti and Carlo Petrini, president and founder of the international “Slow Food Movement” spearheaded the initiative.

Climate change and poverty

Francis congratulated its members for having "placed the integral ecology proposed by the encyclical Laudato si’ as the driving force behind all your initiatives". 

He said the term “integral ecology” is often misunderstood, pointing out that it is based on this fundamental concept: "there is no ecology without equality and there is no equality without ecology".

"Even the pandemic has demonstrated this: the health of humanity cannot be separated from that of the environment in which we live," the pope insisted.

"It is also clear that climate change not only upsets the balance of nature, but also causes poverty and hunger, afflicting the most vulnerable and sometimes forcing them to leave their land,” he continued. 

“The neglect of creation and social injustices influence each other," Francis said pointedly.

Picking up on a refrain that is dear to him, he called on the entire international community -- first and foremost its leaders -- to question an economic system whose effects are causing harm to the earth.

"We need the genuine will to tackle the root causes of the climate upheavals that are happening. Generic commitments are not enough," -- words, words, words -- "and one cannot look only as far as the immediate consent of one's voters or investors," the pope hammered home in a very frank speech.

"We need to work today for everyone’s future. Young people and the poor will hold us to account," he said forcefully.

Profound change of attitude

The general transformation Francis is calling for is based on two words that he explained to a captivated audience: contemplation and compassion.

A profound change of attitude can be the fruit only of contemplation. Otherwise a world "sickened by consumption" is heading for a fall, he warned.  

Lamenting that the "outlook on reality is increasingly rapid, distracted, superficial, while news and forests are burnt in a short time," Francis issued an urgent invitation: "so as not to be distracted by a thousand useless things, we must find silence; for the heart not to become sick, we must be still."

"To contemplate is to gift oneself with time to be silent and to pray," he affirmed. 

He said it "is the antidote to hasty, superficial and inconclusive choices".

Vaccine against the epidemic of indifference

To take time for contemplation is also to take time to look at the other and to place oneself under God's gaze.

Francis is convinced that this will lead to a change of prism which inevitably leads to compassion. 

He said this is the "opposite of our indifference", which does not make us consider our fellow human beings as inhabitants of a "common home".

"Compassion is the best vaccine against the epidemic of indifference," the pope continued. 

And he insisted that it is the driving force behind action to improve the way the world works.

"The world needs this creative and active charity, people who do not stay in front of a screen making comments, but who are willing to get their hands dirty to remove degradation and restore dignity,” he said. 

“Having compassion is a choice: it is choosing to have no enemies, so as to see everyone as a neighbor," the pope concluded.

They were powerful words that could easily form the preamble to Fratelli tutti, the encyclical that Francis plans to sign on October 3 in Assisi.