LAUDATO SI

am946745

What to people think of the letter?

tommy2bad

am946745 wrote: »

What to people think of the letter?

Haven't read it yet so other than the headlines I have no idea what's in it. I'm going to wait until I've at least skin read it before deciding. None the less the headlines are promising and seem to be getting a positive response from most people. The usual suspects are against it but I guess if 95% consensus didn't convince you, the pope won't be the tipping point.

It's available in full here http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2015/06/18/read-the-encyclical-for-yourself-laudato-si/
Long read........

am946745

I am glad the Pope has spoken up firmly against abortion. He also called for people to accept their natural bodies.

Benny_Cake

I'm going to reserve judgement until I have a chance to read it, but like Tommy, from what I've read it sounds positive. Climate change is also a moral issue, despite what Jeb Bush and others might think, so it's good to see a figure as significant as the Pope speaking out on it.

Plenty of room for some solar panels on the roof of St.Peter's btw, would be a good symbol of putting words into action!

georgieporgy

In 2010, under pope Benedict, the Vatican was declared the greenest state in the world. It is totally solar powered.

am946745

georgieporgy wrote: »

In 2010, under pope Benedict, the Vatican was declared the greenest state in the world. It is totally solar powered.

Hmm no, its not totally solar powered. but it is pretty green.

Benny_Cake

georgieporgy wrote: »

In 2010, under pope Benedict, the Vatican was declared the greenest state in the world. It is totally solar powered.

http://inhabitat.com/the-vatican-city-is-the-greenest-state-in-the-world/

I honestly didn't know that. 100MW of solar is pretty impressive.

am946745

Benny_Cake wrote: »

http://inhabitat.com/the-vatican-city-is-the-greenest-state-in-the-world/

I honestly didn't know that. 100MW of solar is pretty impressive.

Ahh... Thanks for the link. I've been around the vatican a number of times. I was thinking where could they have put the panels. But i see they have covered the roof of the Aula Paolo VI,

lazybones32

I usually only have a few hours on Sunday afternoon to get some reading done but there appears to be some interesting topics in it.

TomBtheGoat

georgieporgy wrote: »

In 2010, under pope Benedict, the Vatican was declared the greenest state in the world. It is totally solar powered.

I never knew that, fair play.

indy_man

Good overview of why Francis wrote this encyclical

http://gloria.tv/media/UkW94eC6E2e


I am very impressed with much of what I have read in Laudato Si so far

“The external deserts in the world are growing, because the internal deserts have become so vast”. For this reason, the ecological crisis is also a summons to profound interior conversion. It must be said that some committed and prayerful Christians, with the excuse of realism and pragmatism, tend to ridicule expressions of concern for the environment. Others are passive; they choose not to change their habits and thus become inconsistent. So what they all need is an “ecological conversion”, whereby the effects of their encounter with Jesus Christ become evident in their relationship with the world around them. Living our vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or a secondary aspect of our Christian experience. (217)

am946745

Some interesting points.

Abortion:-

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”

Human ecology also implies another profound reality: the relationship between human life and the moral law, which is inscribed in our nature and is necessary for the creation of a more dignified environment. Pope Benedict XVI spoke of an “ecology of man”, based on the fact that “man too has a nature that he must respect and that he cannot manipulate at will”.[120] It is enough to recognize that our body itself establishes us in a direct relationship with the environment and with other living beings. The acceptance of our bodies as God’s gift is vital for welcoming and accepting the entire world as a gift from the Father and our common home, whereas thinking that we enjoy absolute power over our own bodies turns, often subtly, into thinking that we enjoy absolute power over creation. Learning to accept our body, to care for it and to respect its fullest meaning, is an essential element of any genuine human ecology. Also, valuing one’s own body in its femininity or masculinity is necessary if I am going to be able to recognize myself in an encounter with someone who is different. In this way we can joyfully accept the specific gifts of another man or woman, the work of God the Creator, and find mutual enrichment. It is not a healthy attitude which would seek “to cancel out sexual difference because it no longer knows how to confront it”.

Relativism

The culture of relativism is the same disorder which drives one person to take advantage of another, to treat others as mere objects, imposing forced labour on them or enslaving them to pay their debts. The same kind of thinking leads to the sexual exploitation of children and abandonment of the elderly who no longer serve our interests. It is also the mindset of those who say: Let us allow the invisible forces of the market to regulate the economy, and consider their impact on society and nature as collateral damage. In the absence of objective truths or sound principles other than the satisfaction of our own desires and immediate needs, what limits can be placed on human trafficking, organized crime, the drug trade, commerce in blood diamonds and the fur of endangered species? Is it not the same relativistic logic which justifies buying the organs of the poor for resale or use in experimentation, or eliminating children because they are not what their parents wanted? This same “use and throw away” logic generates so much waste, because of the disordered desire to consume more than what is really necessary. We should not think that political efforts or the force of law will be sufficient to prevent actions which affect the environment because, when the culture itself is corrupt and objective truth and universally valid principles are no longer upheld, then laws can only be seen as arbitrary impositions or obstacles to be avoided.