A timely exhortation shining light on three crucial realities of our age

The following summary of Pope Francis's Apostolic Exhortation on Climate Change was written by W.L. Patenaude's of Catholic Ecology for Catholic World Report.

The 2015 release of Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’ surprised and often disappointed a good many who had been anticipating a papal document devoted to climate change.

Laudato Si’, it turned out, was something more. Offering only several paragraphs to the issue—along with rebukes of the secular environmental movement, with its often anti-human mentalities—the encyclical gave a comprehensive overview of multiple, often related ecological and social issues, all in the context of a Catholic understanding of faith and the fallen human person. While prudential matters were examined and political solutions offered, the ultimate answer at the heart of Laudato Si’ was humanity’s right relationship with each other, with creation, and with the Triune God.

With the release today of a less formal apostolic exhortation, Laudate Deum (“Praise God”), a decisive statement by the Successor of Saint Peter about climate change has been given, but once again, this document—while titled and focused “on the Climate Crisis”—is something more.

Exhortations, critiques, and hope

The urgency running through Laudato Si’ to address ecological issues is certainly amplified in this latest offering by Pope Francis. Addressing Laudate Deum to his “brothers and sisters of our suffering planet,” the Holy Father offers this latest document as something of an addendum to his 2015 encyclical.

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