Has Laudato si changed you as a Catholic?

[Emeraldlady]

I was raised to know it was a Christian’s duty to be good stewards of the earth.

Being from farming stock, I was too to a greater degree than some perhaps, but even though we were aware of the blessing of crops etc that happened, it was regarded as a token gesture by my generation. Not to any degree a sacred ritual experienced in the core being of the aboriginal peoples rites.

 

[Emeraldlady]

I’m happy for you, but environmental issues have been a constant theme in US society since the 1970s and we have been doing all kinds of things since then such as turning off lights, recycling, picking up trash, not using pesticides (resulting ultimately in bed bugs making a comeback for a while although I think they managed to develop something else to zap them) etc. There’s also been tons of legislation going towards energy efficiency of one sort or another, with varying degrees of usefulness. Wind power generation generates clean energy but harms bird populations, and electric cars are great for the air but bad in terms of having to dispose of the battery packs.

So, no, Laudato si didn’t have any particular effect on me. It seems like it’s stating obvious truths that most of us in my generation learned from childhood onwards. I have to remind myself that it might actually be a wake-up call to the rest of the world who didn’t grow up in the 1970s doing antipollution projects for the science fair.

LS promotes a greater global conception of stewardship than we are familiar with. That is, how my efforts or sins against the environment impact the whole earth and especially people whose livelihood is solely dependent on the environmental health of their society. One of LS statements says…

“Besides, we know that approximately a third of all food produced is discarded, and “whenever food is thrown out it is as if it were stolen from the table of the poor”

As rich countries, we’ve let this go on without too much outrage. Catholic charities have certainly been at the forefront of feeding the poor, but we need to not just clean up after what is a sinful greedy economy. We have to have a deeper responsibility that makes us outraged and active in calling out the causes of such wasteful ways.

That’s an example I think of what Pope Francis is calling on us to shift towards spiritually.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

LS promotes a greater global conception of stewardship than we are familiar with.

That’s your own opinion. I’m glad you’re so enthusiastic about it, but it’s not new news to me or several of the others posting in this thread, including the global aspects. I’m not sure why you feel a need to lecture others on this forum like you somehow think we are unaware when we have told you differently.

I have made a point of not “wasting food” since I was very young, because when I was very little I read those ads in magazines that said a family in USA throws out enough food to feed a family of 6 in India. That was back in the 1970s. My parents were children during the Depression and they didn’t waste anything either, plus it’s not like we had a ton of food money to waste when I was growing up. You ate what was put on your plate and what didn’t get eaten was served, sometimes reheated and sometimes in a different form, at the next meal. When my mother was in the nursing home they had to stop her from hoarding parts of her lunch she didn’t want to eat in her dresser drawer, because she felt it was wasteful to throw it out, she never threw out food unless it went bad.

I’ll be muting now, have a nice weekend.

 

[Emeraldlady]

Emeraldlady:

LS promotes a greater global conception of stewardship than we are familiar with.

That’s your own opinion.

Respectfully no. I’m just engaging the dialogue that Pope Francis and our clergy are asking of us through study and contemplation on Laudato si. The USCCB is as on board with this as much as my own countries bishops are.

In Laudato Si’, the Holy Father invites us to reflect deeply on all points of human activity, whether we consider care for creation at the level of our individual choices or in the public square. The need for urgent action is clear and he appeals to us to become “painfully aware” of what is happening to the world and “to grow in solidarity, responsibility and compassionate care.”210 The Holy Father makes it clear that we were given the earth as a gift from our Creator. It is our responsibility to avoid contributing to a culture of acquisitiveness, individualism, or exploitation.

Pope Francis repeatedly urges us to renewed and urgent action and honest dialogue about our environment – both social and ecological. “The human environment and the natural environment deteriorate together”48, both of which disproportionately affect our poorest brothers and sisters. Reflecting on inner city slums, lack of clean drinking water, and a consumerism mentality, Pope Francis asks “what kind of world do we want to leave to those who come after us?”160 This question is at the heart of this encyclical and rightfully calls us all to work harder against the challenges the human family faces today. USCCB

I’m not sure why you feel a need to lecture others on this forum like you somehow think we are unaware when we have told you differently.

I found flaws and gaps in my mindset and understanding of environmental stewardship upon studying LS and found a synchronicity with the language of the Communion of Saints. Maybe others have had that experience. I don’t know why you have taken that personally.

 

[Emeraldlady]

I am an animal person and it’s always a little touchy dealing with hunters, but the fact is that responsible, ethical hunters are behind a huge number of conservation initiatives for wildlife and lands alike. They respect the land and want to make sure there will continue to be animals to hunt.

But do we speak out against unethical hunting with that sense of “painful awareness” that Pope Francis is encouraging. There’s an article in the papers here in Australia today about a Texas group selling hunts of emu’s and kangaroos because it is illegal to hunt them in Australia. (Apart from kangaroo culls overseen by the government).

https://www.facebook.com/heraldsun/posts/10157434203723171

 

[StudentMI]

Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth by Buckminster Fuller was mind blowing. Granted he bought into the overpopulation myth, but still a worthwhile read. Also in a similar vein would be the environmental coverage in Counterpunch.

 

[Emeraldlady]

Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth by Buckminster Fuller was mind blowing. Granted he bought into the overpopulation myth, but still a worthwhile read. Also in a similar vein would be the environmental coverage in Counterpunch.

Do they echo Laudato si?

 

[Irishmom2]

And the ad with the tear running down the Indian’s cheek. That made a big impression on me when I was younger.

(I do not ever litter. It was something I learned as a child. In fact I sometimes pick up other people’s litter, “give a hoot” indeed! )

 

[CRV]

In addition to Laudato si by Pope Francis, Popes Paul VI/John Paul II/Benedict XVI have also spoken on the environment and our care of the earth and it’s resources etc.

http://www.vatican.va/content/bened...n-xvi_mes_20091208_xliii-world-day-peace.html P. BXVI 2010

http://www.vatican.va/content/bened...ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate.html P. BXVI 2009 Caritas in veritate

http://www.vatican.va/content/john-...hf_jp-ii_spe_20020610_venice-declaration.html PJPII & The Ecumenical Patriarch His Holiness Bartholomew 2002

http://www.vatican.va/content/john-...i_mes_14121998_xxxii-world-day-for-peace.html PJPII 1999

http://www.vatican.va/content/john-...i_mes_19891208_xxiii-world-day-for-peace.html PJPII 1990

http://www.vatican.va/content/john-...ii_enc_30121987_sollicitudo-rei-socialis.html P JPII 1987

To the members of the Agency of the United Nations, John Paul II, 18 August 1985 | John Paul II P JPII 1985

http://www.vatican.va/content/john-.../hf_jp-ii_enc_04031979_redemptor-hominis.html P JPII 1979

http://www.vatican.va/content/paul-...f_p-vi_mess_19720605_conferenza-ambiente.html P PVI 1972

Octogesima Adveniens (May 14, 1971) | Paul VI P PVI 1971

 

[Emeraldlady]

That history only goes to highlight how Catholics have failed to listen to the Church on the importance of strongly defending the environment against greed and consumerism. We have submitted to greed culture instead of using the power of Catholic unity to denounce it.

 

[CRV]

Perhaps.

Though I would have to disagree with a broad brush assumption - I think a lot of Catholics simply due to economic factors, in general took care of the environment where they lived. For right or wrong putting bread on the table took precedence over global issues.

Growing up we grew our own veggies and had two fruit trees, had a compost heap, used manure to fertilize, reused and recycled, wore hand me down clothes, clothes were mended or repurposed; were worn until they were either worn out or outgrown; had one pair of shoes for school and one for Mass etc. Reused the newspaper for toilet paper, had a string bag for a few grocery items or one of the two wheeled shopping trolleys which you lugged home the weekly shopping from the corner store etc. etc etc.

From Redemptor Hominis:-

" Man’s situation in the modern world seems indeed to be far removed from the objective demands of the moral order, from the requirements of justice, and even more of social love. We are dealing here only with that which found expression in the Creator’s first message to man at the moment in which he was giving him the earth, to “subdue” it100. This first message was confirmed by Christ the Lord in the mystery of the Redemption. This is expressed by the Second Vatican Council in these beautiful chapters of its teaching that concern man’s “kingship”; that is to say his call to share in the kingly function-the munus regale of Christ himself101. The essential meaning of this “kingship” and “dominion” of man over the visible world, which the Creator himself gave man for his task, consists in the priority of ethics over technology, in the primacy of the person over things, and in the superiority of spirit over matter."

There’s always room for improvement - from Catholics and non-Catholics as well.

 

[blackforest]

I though t the Church was a big tent?

No one said you weren’t welcome in the Church. It’s just interesting that the OP asked a religious question and received a political answer.

Environmental stewardship applies on an individual level - you and I are in agreement there - but Laudato Si is also calling for a more global and collaborative effort.

 

[StudentMI]

Fuller’s book was written long before. I just cited Counterpunch as an example of environmental reporting. Not endorsing all the views in their articles, of course.

 

[po18guy]

Remember: it’s only political if you disagree with it. To be conservative is to maintain what exists. To care for it, defend it. The Church is certainly worthy of conservation. So is creation.

Strange that the OP has not spoken - but you have.

Very curious…

 

[blackforest]

Remember: it’s only political if you disagree with it.

??? Conservative is an adjective referring to a political orientation. That applies whether or not I agree with someone.

To be conservative is to maintain what exists. To care for it, defend it.

Equivocation of definitions, but I’ll let it slide.

And the ad with the tear running down the Indian’s cheek. That made a big impression on me when I was younger.

I didn’t even know until recently that he was an Italian actor!

 

[Irishmom2]

I am not sure that is true. Unless we are thinking of different ads.

 

[blackforest]

Iron Eyes Cody, né Espera Oscar de Corti. He was born in the U.S. to Italian parents. I learned about him from a documentary called Reel Injun. He’s the star of this commercial:

 

[Irishmom2]

Well there you go! Thanks, @blackforest!

 

[yankeesouth]

I thought this was this was the most important statement. The teaching of Jesus is that we care for all of God’s creation but the liberals have skipped over a few Pro Life non negotiable teachings of Jesus in the guise of ‘caring’ for the earth. Many were surprised (some even disheartened) when the Pope confirmed the US bishops teaching that ending abortion was the preeminent issue facing Catholic voters but he already suggested it here.

“Since everything is interrelated, concern for the protection of nature is also incompatible with the justification of abortion. How can we genuinely teach the importance of concern for other vulnerable beings, however troublesome or inconvenient they may be, if we fail to protect a human embryo, even when its presence is uncomfortable and creates difficulties? “If personal and social sensitivity towards the acceptance of the new life is lost, then other forms of acceptance that are valuable for society also wither away”.

 

[Dolphin]

I love Pope Francis

I hope he becomes a Saint