Prayer for the planet
Re: "Pope Francis dead at 88", (BP, April 22).
Pope Francis' 2015 encyclical Laudato Si, on Care for Our Common Home, declares the governing paradigm that "We are the stewards of creation and have the responsibility to hand on to the next generation, an earth that is in at least as good a condition as the one we receive".
The intimate relationship between the poor and the fragility of the planet, that everything in the world is connected, the critique of new technology, the call to seek other ways of understanding the economy and progress, the value proper to each creature, the human meaning of ecology, the serious responsibility of international and local policy and our rife throwaway culture and the proposal of a new lifestyle remains humanity's calling as well as a clarion call to arms.
Pope Francis reminds us that the ecological catastrophe of the Anthropocene that threatens humanity, indeed all life on Earth, is corroborated by wilfully not acting upon convincing climate change and environmental science that predict a 'tipping point' from which there is no possible recovery.
As Richard Horton exhorts from the Vatican whilst reporting for the medical journal Lancet in 2017: "A rejuvenation in moral inquiry, leadership, advocacy and activism is needed.
We have to understand that wisdom comes from a broad, inclusive conversation, from fostering a plurality of voices."
Pope Francis' foresight to address prescient threats to society, the decline in the quality of human and other life, global inequality, weak responses, and not soliciting a variety and balanced set of opinions will eternally resonate from His Holiness' deathbed.
