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Apr 28, 2025

The Pope of Encounter and Dialogue

Two of Pope Francis’s most important themes help frame his eco-teachings and his larger papal initiatives.

Pope Francis’s central ecological themes centered on his teachings of a “throwaway culture” and its antidote, the reminder that “everything is connected.” The first was introduced early in his papacy, during a 2013 General Audience, and the later would resonate throughout it, most especially in his 2015 eco-encyclical Laudato Si’.

But two other, interrelated themes were woven through his time with us. He spoke and wrote often of the need to build cultures of encounter as well as the importance of dialogue. These were for Francis foundational to fostering peace, understanding, and human dignity—and likewise to build cultures that cared for and nurtured God’s creation.

Pope Francis described a culture of encounter as a way of engaging others with openness, compassion, and respect, rooted in recognizing the dignity of every person. In a September 2016 morning meditation, the Holy Father said that such a culture calls for “not just seeing, but looking; not just hearing, but listening; not just passing people by, but stopping with them,” as reported by L'Osservatore Romano.

In his October 2020 encyclical Fratelli Tutti, Francis links a culture of encounter to St. Francis of Assisi’s vision of fraternity,...

Apr 23, 2025

The Best of Pope Francis: Thirteen important eco-comments by the Holy Father

From the theological to the prudential, Pope Francis's contributions to Catholic Ecology will be examined for decades. What follows is one attempt to capture the essence of it all.

When Jorge Mario Bergoglio was introduced to the world with the name of Francis, we all knew that this would be a Successor of Saint Peter eager to carry on his predecessors' work for the care of creation. Now twelve years later, we can look back on a pontiff who added to the corpus of papal statements on ecological protection with candor, inspiration, and abundance.

Below are just some of the more important ones. They range from the soaring theology of Catholic Ecology to the political and prudential. In choosing them, I hope to capture the essence of Pope Francis's immense contributions to the Church in her understanding and witnessing to the caring for, nurturing, and, yes, the proper use of the very creation given to us by God in the beginning.

“The vocation of being a 'protector' ... has a prior dimension which is simply human, involving everyone. It means protecting all creation, the beauty of the created world, as the Book of Genesis tells us and as Saint Francis of Assisi showed us. It means respecting each of God’s creatures and respecting the environment in which we live. [...] Be protectors of God’s gifts!”...

Apr 21, 2025

On the Passing of Pope Francis: Do Not Be Afraid.

The loss of a beloved pontiff can never result in the derailment of their good works and contributions.

When the news came to me about the death of Pope Francis, on a morning that was otherwise filled with the newly dawned joys of Easter, the words that came to me were those of another beloved pontiff, Saint John Paul II, who began his pontificate with the divine assurance to be not afraid.

This was, in fact, the same message I offered after his death, when there was concern among Catholic eco-advocates that the Church would veer off John Paul II’s teachings on environmental protection. He did, after all, introduce the topic quite surprisingly in his first encyclical Redemptor Hominus—a document about the human person and the salvific presence of the Son of God Himself. This not only brought eco-issues into the limelight, but it did so within papal pastoral and theological teachings.

Afterwards, John Paul II continued to champion the importance of ecological matters, which is why so many despaired when he died. The fear at the time was palpable among Catholic eco-circles that no successor could or would accept the torch of environmental protection.

But then came Pope Benedict XVI—who would soon be called The Green Pope. And again, after news of his...

Jan 27, 2025

National Interfaith Power & Light Suspends Operations

Interfaith Power & Light Affiliate Network Continues to Lead and Advance Mission

In a statement released last week, USA-based Interfaith Power & Light told its members that it was closing shop due to financial reasons. The full statement follows, but stay tuned for analysis here at Catholic Ecology.

Statement from Interfaith Power & Light — a national organization that works in all 50 states and U.S. territories to inspire and mobilize people of faith and conscience to take bold and just action on climate change – on the decision to suspend national operations, and look to network of Interfaith Power & Light state and regional affiliates to continue to lead and advance mission:

After much careful deliberation, the board of Interfaith Power & Light (IPL) National has made the difficult decision to suspend its central office’s operations, effective January 17, 2025. To be clear, the work of the state affiliates, each its own independent entity, continues unabated, and it is from these groups that much of the IPL network’s prodigious output has come over the years, and will continue to emerge.

Despite the unwavering passion and commitment of our staff, partners, and supporters, the national NGO, that offered logistical and other support to the...

Jan 10, 2025

Pontiff to Diplomats: Build Community with a Diplomacy of Hope, Truth

The Holy Father's annual message to diplomats stresses the need for better relationships in an age of division and fear, fueled often by social media.

"Human beings, for that matter, are endowed with an innate thirst for truth. That is a fundamental aspect of our human condition, as every person carries deep within a longing for objective truth and an irrepressible desire for knowledge. While this has always been the case, in our time the denial of self-evident truths seems to have gained the upper hand." Address of His Holiness Pope Francis to Members of the Diplomatic Coprs Accredited to the Holy See, Hall of Benediction, Thursday, 9 January 2025.

As with any great leader late in their years, most especially the Successors of St. Peter, Pope Francis's teachings continue to coalesce around a few familiar themes—those that have always been at the foundation of his messages and preaching, and for which he will be remembered.

Indeed, his 2025 annual address to the Vatican's diplomatic corps offers something of a primer on his thought and what will surely be the lasting thematic contribution of his papacy. In particular, we find within this latest message a sort of call for an ecology of relation, authentically rooted in objective, universal truths, to counter the ideological divisions of our age.

The Holy Father easily calls...

Jul 10, 2024

Pope Francis Reminds Us to Keep Faith First.

Message for the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation highlights the theology behind the ethics of eco-protection

To hope and act with creation, then, means to live an incarnational faith, one that can enter into the suffering and hope-filled “flesh” of others, by sharing in the expectation of the bodily resurrection to which believers are predestined in Christ the Lord. – Message of His Holiness for the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation.

The Holy Father’s latest eco-statement, issued last week in preparation for the September first World Day of Prayer for Creation, may not be what some expect. But it is exactly what it should be.

The statement grounds our eco-efforts in our faith, which should always be the foundation on which we seek to build or protect anything.

Moreover, the statement provides a sort of catechesis of what our faith proposes that is different from worldly eco-voices—and such catechesis is part and parcel of evangelization.

Why is there so much evil in the world? Why so much injustice, so many fratricidal wars that kill children, destroy cities, pollute the environment and leave mother earth violated and devastated? Implicitly evoking the sin of Adam, Saint Paul states: “We know that the whole creation has been groaning...

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About the Blog

Catholic Ecology posts my regular column in the Rhode Island Catholic, as well as scientific and theological commentary about the latest eco-news, both within and outside of the Catholic Church. What is contained herein is but one person's attempt to teach and defend the Church's teachings - ecological and otherwise. As such, I offer all contents of this blog for approval of the bishops of the Church. It is my hope that nothing herein will lead anyone astray from truth.