Tuesday, 6/30/15
People are becoming aware that this last encyclical of Pope
Francis is not just another batch of holy words from Rome. They are seeing it
as the biggest Christian event since the Second Vatican Council.
Its introduction made mention of how God in Genesis gave
mankind dominion over the world of nature. As truly central to this encyclical
is our Pope’s pointing out that for too long, we have been using our dominion
over nature as our license to exploit the world for financial gain. But, what
God meant by giving us dominion over nature was that he was entrusting nature
to us to be kindly cared for
You are given a hint at the scope of this encyclical if you
look through the fifteen pages of footnotes the Holy Father appended to his encyclical.
Sadly, the thoroughness of the encyclical is its drawback. We can easily be captured by an inverse
snobbery that scorns footnotes.
The corporations that want to go on exploiting nature for their financial
gain pay millions to down- home sounding spokesmen who make fun of
intellectuals.
Shouldn’t we join our Pope in following Francis of Assisi
who saw the world of nature as his little sister? Shouldn’t we follow him in
taking as our top priority that of protecting our sister earth from ruin?
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