The following is the opinion and analysis of the writer:
Sister Karen Berry, OSF
I am a Franciscan Sister, a member of a Catholic religious community whose patron saint is Francis of Assisi, who loved all creation and the poor. When Pope Francis took the name of this saint on the day he was elected, Franciscans worldwide knew that this Jesuit would pursue a pro-creation agenda in his outreach to the poor. It wasn’t surprising that he wrote a document in 2015 called “Laudato Si”, calling for attention to and conversation about the environmental crisis. He urged a new way to live in harmony with all of creation.
As a follow-up to this, Pope Francis issued another document in 2023, called “Laudate Deum”. With even more urgency, he calls for faster action against the climate crisis and he challenges climate change deniers to understand the danger. He calls on politicians and business leaders to transition to renewable forms of energy and to see how these adaptations are “generating countless jobs in different sectors.”
When Pope Francis asks us to think about where the power over humanity lies, this evokes serious reflection from us when we consider the policy positions of political candidates who deny climate change, want to roll back green energy, and seek to accelerate the mining of fossil fuels. He admonishes us that “our immense technological development has not been accompanied by a development in human responsibility, values and conscience.”
In our part of Arizona, environmentalists are currently protesting the opening of new mines that will destroy wildlife habitats and take huge amounts of water from the community. An excellent feature article in the Star on Sunday, August 11, told us about the copper mine in Mexico that is causing farmers’ and ranchers’ wells to run dry. In his document, Pope Francis laments that people “are not clearly told that a project will result in the clearing of their lands, a decline in the quality of their lives, a desolate and less habitable landscape lacking in life.” He asks why people with great power would even care about the damage being done “if they feel securely shielded by financial resources.”
As he nears the end of his powerful exhortation, Pope Francis asserts that “unless citizens control political power ... it will not be possible to control damage to the environment.” He exhorts us to “demonstrate the nobility of politics and not its shame.” As we prepare for an extremely consequential election in November, our pope offers a clear direction to anyone looking at candidates for office. Each of us who believes climate change is real is doing our best to reuse, recycle and renew, but Pope Francis says, “the most effective solutions will not come from individual efforts alone, but ... from major political decisions on the national and international level.”
Vote wisely!
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