Deane-Drummond, Celia. “Pope Francis: Priest and Prophet in the Anthropocene.” Environmental Humanities 8, no. 2 (2016): 256-62. doi:10.1215/22011919-3664369.
As a priest and liberation theologian, Pope Francis quite deliberately desires to place himself in the shoes of the poorest of the poor, so as to see things from their perspective. No wonder that another liberation theologian and great advocate for ecology, Leonardo Boff, has written so warmly about Pope Francis’s ministry. Pope Francis’s scope in Laudato si’ is truly global: he wants to address “every person living on this planet.” In particular, through quoting the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate Bartholomew I. Pope Francis acknowledges that the way human beings have treated the natural world is not something that can be simply brushed aside but amounts to a grave sin. The language of sin and repentance is generally avoided in environmental humanities literature, but it is an important way to recognize the severity of the breakdown in human relationships with others, including others living in our creaturely home. For Pope Francis and many other religious believers, this breakdown reflects a broken relationship with God, and he expresses shock at the complacent attitude shown toward degradation in the natural environment… (Adapted from author’s text)
© Celia Deane-Drummond 2016. Environmental Humanities is available online only and is published under a Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
- Francis. Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’ of the Holy Father Francis on Care for our Common Home. Rome: Vatican Press, 2015.