LAUDATO SI (Encyclica on climate change)

What is Laudato Si? Laudato si simply means ‘Praise be to you, my Lord’ and is and encyclica on the Care for our common home. Many people seem not to understand what Pope Francis Benedict and the Church at large will be talking about. However, this year on the 2^nd of March we were blessed to have His Eminence Cardinal Tuckson interacting with us at Arrupe College and he took the opportunity to fully explain what is meant by Laudato Si.

Laudato Si is an encyclical meant to teach on Integral Ecology and that is the interrelatedness of all things in nature for the sole purpose of supporting human life. Others call it the Encyclica on Climate change but it does not only talk about climate change but also ecology. Therefore, it is an Encyclica on Ecology.

According to Cardinal Turkson, the best way to understand the whole Encyclica was to apply the 7C’s. What are the 7C’s? These outline the explanation behind the whole document. Let us see what they are.

1. Continuity – there is a continuity in the Encyclica by Pope Francis after what has been talked about by all the other Popes in the past e.g Pope Benedict XV1.
2. Collegiality – Pope Francis talks about what has been taught by other Bishops around the world even at the Episcopal Conference.
3. Conversation – that refers to dialogue. The Pope calls people to come together to solve the global problem (highlighted in paragraph 13). It is an invitation to think together. Environment <-> Global Public Good
4. Care – this refers to care for creation and the poor. The Pope encourages us to give an ear to those who cry to us to be heard that is the poor and creation. We should go beyond stewardship, being compassionate.
5. Conversion – Ecological conversion, change of lifestyle towards nature that is the way we do business on the environment.
6. Citizenship – everyone should be helped to appreciate the undeniable fact that we are all citizens of this world, this is our home.
7. Contemplation – we should be able to contemplate God for what he has made through Prayer. The hand of God is evident in nature.

So all these we can refer to them as the Ecological Sacraments. To conclude Cardinal Tuckson said:

SEE– the ecological problem, JUDGE– what is taught & ACT– have a solution

We thank the Catholic University in Zimbabwe for affording everyone the opportunity to meet His Eminence Cardinal Turkson through planning for this event to take place and the Arrupe Jesuit University for hosting us.