#433: 10 Reasons Why Pope Francis’ Ecology Encyclical Is a Game Changer—Part 2

As Pope Francis begins his campaign for an environmental revolution by traveling to Latin America this week, I list 5 more reasons why his new encyclical may well mobilize enough support to bring real change. 

6. Francis Draws from Catholicism’s Core.  Conservative naysayers can complain all they want that France and should “stick with his job,” should “keep out of politics,” should “focus on making us better people.” It is all camouflage designed to disguise either their ignorance or the truth or both.  The fact is that Francis is synthesizing 20 centuries of an evolving Christian worldview and 125 years of modern Catholic social teaching to arrive at his positions.  His job as pope is to communicate the Catholic tradition to the world and offer its wisdom for the benefit of all.  That tradition, at its core, rejects hard divisions between religion, social justice, and politics. The Church’s engagement in social justice issues is long-standing, and its concern for the environment is rooted in the Book of Genesis. The naysayers don’t understand (or don’t WANT to understand) either Catholicism or the modern papacy (see #7).

Moreover conservative Catholics should be wary: by dismissing or undermining France’s integral vision they expose themselves as people whose economic and political values come from the conventional wisdom of modern secular culture, rather than from their own faith tradition. In short, Francis has become a challenge to their Catholic identity.

7. A New Role for the Papacy.  I have argued before that every pope since John XXIII (1958-1963) has transformed the papacy in some way.  Thus Francis was elected to an office vastly different from the papacy of Pius XII (1939-1958), who never left the Vatican but ruled his flock in isolated, regal splendor.  John XXIII deleted the pomp and opened the Vatican; Paul VI (1963-1978) became the “Pilgrim Pope” for his wide travels (including his historic U.S. visit in 1965); John-Paul I (1978) was the “Smiling Pope”; John-Paul II (1978-2005) was pope as global globetrotting superstar; Benedict XVI’s (2005-2013) resignation ended the papacy as a lifelong office.

Now Francis is positioning the papacy as the world’s most visible protector of the planet.  This also makes the papacy the world’s strongest voice promoting the future of humanity--and especially the future of humanity beyond the prevailing capitalist model.

8. Confronting Power with Truth.  Those committed to (or bought by) the system Francis criticizes have resorted to every sort of ad hominem attack, calling him “out of is depth,” “socialist,” “sounding more like Marx and Stalin than Jesus,” or even “anti-Christ.”

These people have two things in common: they all speak for the powers that be and they are all in denial.  They deny the science of climate change.  They deny the flaws of capitalism, especially its centralization of unaccountable power and its role in promoting inequality and thereby violence and terrorism.  They deny the exploitation of global trade.  They deny the ongoing destruction of our energy, our waters, our air, our food supply.  They deny the soul-deadening impact of consumer culture.  They deny what Francis has called “the globalization of indifference.” Above all they deny his call to make the common good priority #1.

But Francis speaks the truth, and he represents not the 1% who hold the planet’s power, but the 99%--and especially the very poor, whose future is bleak unless someone--someone like Francis--has courage, the humility, and the wisdom to speak truth to power. 

9. Breaking Down the Walls.  Perhaps the chief way the powerful protect their power is by constructing phony “walls” that separate life on our global home into neat compartments. This allows the powerful to pretend either (1) that all is well, since no one compartment threatens global disaster by itself or (2) but nothing can be done, since reforming any ONE compartment will not solve our problems--or, worse, will create others.

Against this phony worldview, Francis offers a comprehensive, holistic vision that breaks down the phony barriers.  In that vision, environmentalism and economics and business and public policy and politics and social justice and politics and human solidarity all fit together--for better or for worse.  Thus, when someone says that he should “avoid environmental issues and stick to talking about human sin,” Francis has this direct reply: our current environmental practices are human sin! 

In short, the pope’s “integral ecology” leaves no place to hide, no room for evasion, no loophole to pretend that our global life is just unconnected compartments.  For him, we are all one human family who inhabit one globe and need one a strategy to secure its future.

10. The “Bulliest” Pulpit.  One irony of Catholic social thinking, which tends to be more “leftist” than the Democratic Party, is that since 1891 most of its development has been driven by papal documents.  Thus a vision championing the poor and protecting the dignity of each person has emerged mostly through proclamations from on high. 

But in this encyclical we see a change.  Instead of a life-long diplomat (as was Paul VI) offering his Olympian views, we get a longtime bishop from the barrios of Buenos Aires.  Instead of a former academic (Benedict XVI) providing scholarly analysis, we get an activist. Instead of a native of Europe offering hope to the third world, we have a natural-born third-worlder speaking up for his own southern half of the world.  And instead of a document content to quote scholars and scriptures and official proclamations, we get significant input from the on-the-ground insight of bishops’ conferences from around the world.

In other words, when we read Francis we are not reading simply one man’s words.  We are reading the words of many leaders, who work with many of the world’s poorest people.  Francis is not just speaking to the whole world he is speaking for the whole world. And his pulpit is not confined to a church; his pulpit is the planet itself.

Of course, no single document can change the world.  But a single document can be the catalyst, the tipping point that pushes a revolutionary vision from futile resistance to active momentum.  If Francis’ words can mobilize widespread suffering into discontented solidarity, than perhaps it will bring the courage that millions--no, billions--need to finally say “we want a better world, more livable future--and we can have it!” And with that, Francis will have changed the game from hopeless suffering to hopeful joy.

© Bernard F. Swain PhD 2015