Apostles for Today
April - 2020
Starting Over: An Invitation to take care of our “Common Home”
In re-reading the Encyclical “Laudato Si” I found a text that touched me and inspired me to propose this reflection. Pope Francis refers to the Earth Charter: “The Earth Charter calls on all of us to leave behind a phase of self-destruction and to begin anew, but we have not yet developed a universal consciousness that makes this possible. This is why I propose once again that special challenge: “As never before in history, our common destiny obliges us to search for a new beginning […]. May our era be remembered for the re-awakening of a new reverence for life, for the resolve to attain sustainability, for the acceleration of the struggle for justice and for peace, and for the joyful celebration of life” (1).”
In the light of this text, I propose to make a comparison, based on a reflection of Leonardo Boff, between the two documents of global relevance on the ethics of the care of our Common Home. This concerns the affinities between the encyclical of Pope Francis Laudato Si on the care of our Common Home and the Earth Charter.
The encyclical “the care of our Common Home” and “the Earth Charter” are perhaps the only two documents of world importance that have so many common affinities. They concern themselves with the degraded state of the Earth and of life in its various dimensions outside of the conventional vision which is limited to environmentalism. These are two documents that can give us hope.
As we can see, from the passage cited above, the encyclical knows the Earth Charter and cites it in one of the encyclical’s fundamental points: to search for a new beginning (n. 207). This concept of a new beginning is taken on board by Pope Francis and proposed to all of humanity. According to Leonardo Boff, there are many affinities between the two documents. In order to facilitate our understanding, let us list some of these affinities, among others.
First, it is the same spirit that pervades both texts: an analytic approach, bringing together the most secure scientific data; a critical approach, denouncing the current system that has produced the imbalance of the Earth; and a hopeful approach, indicating ways to save the earth. It does not give up in the face of criticism and dismissal, rather it trusts in the capacity of humanity to forge a new lifestyle as well as in the innovative action of the Creator “the Sovereign Lover of life” (Wisdom 11:26)
They both have the same starting point. The Charter affirms: “the dominant models of production and consumption are causing environmental devastation, the reduction of resources and a massive extinction of species (Preamble 2). The encyclical repeats this: “We need only take a frank look at the facts to see that our common home is falling into serious disrepair (…) the present world system is certainly unsustainable from a number of points of view” (n. 61).
There is the same proposal. The Charter affirms: “Fundamental changes are needed in our values, institutions and lifestyles” (Preamble 3). The encyclical underlines: “Every effort to protect and improve our world entails profound changes in ‘lifestyles, models of production and consumption, and the established structures of power which today govern societies” (n. 5).
The declaration of the Charter is innovative, and proposes a new cosmological and ecological model. “Our environmental, economic, political, social and spiritual challenges are interconnected and together we can forge inclusive solutions” (Preamble 3). There is an echo of this affirmation in the encyclical that there are “a number of themes which will reappear as the Encyclical unfolds … the intimate relationship between the poor and the fragility of the planet, the conviction that everything in the world is connected, the call to seek other ways of understanding the
economy and progress, the value proper to every creature, the human meaning of ecology, … and the proposal of a new lifestyle” (n. 16). What is important here is the solidarity between everybody, the shared moderation and “to replace greed with generosity, wastefulness with a spirit of sharing” (n. 9).
The Charter affirms that “there is a spirit of kinship with all life” (Preamble 4). The Encyclical emphasises the same point: “Everything is related, and we human beings are united as brothers and sisters on a wonderful pilgrimage, woven together by the love God has for each of his creatures and which also unites us in fond affection to brother sum, sister moon, to brother river and to mother earth” (n. 92). It is Franciscan universal fraternity.
The Earth Charter underlines that it is our duty “to have respect for and to take care of the community of life (…), to respect the earth in all of its diversity” (I, 1). Every encyclical, starting with the title “to care for our Common Home”, makes this imperative a type of refrain. It seeks “to motivate us to a more compassionate concern for the protection of our world” (n. 216) and “a culture of care that permeates all of society” (n. 231). Here the concept of “care” emerges not just as a mere attitude of benevolence, but as a new model, being loving and being a friend of life and of all that exists and lives.
Another important affinity is the value given to social justice: the Charter maintains a strong relationship between ecology and “social and economic justice” that “protects the vulnerable and serves” those who suffer (III, 9c). The encyclical reaches one of its central points when it affirms that “a true ecological approach always becomes a social approach; it must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor (n. 49:53).
Both the Earth Charter and the encyclical underline the current sense that “every form of life has value, regardless of its use to mankind” (I, 1a). The Pope re-iterates that “all creatures are connected, each must be cherished with love and respect, for all of us as living creatures are dependent on one another” (n. 42). In the name of this understanding the Pope makes a vigorous criticism of anthropocentrism (nn. 115-120), since this only sees the relationship between human beings and nature in terms of using it and devastating it and not vice-versa, forgetting that humanity is part of nature and mankind’s mission is to be nature’s guardian.
The Earth Charter formulated a definition of peace that is one of the best ever reached by human reflection: (peace is) “the fullness that results from correct relations with oneself, with other people, with other cultures, with other life-forms, with the earth and with the Whole which we are part of” (16, f). If, according to Pope Paul VI, peace is “the balance of movement” then the way is “to restore the various levels of ecological equilibrium, establishing harmony within ourselves, with others, with nature and other living creatures, and with God”(n. 210). The end result of such a process is perpetual peace.
These two documents are like lighthouses that guide us in these dark times, giving back to us the necessary hope by which we can save both ourselves and our Common Home (2).
Brothers and Sisters of the UAC, it is my wish that, by reading and developing an awareness of these texts as well as the post-synodal apostolic exhortation Beloved Amazonia of the Holy Father Pope Francis, they can push us towards the construction of a universal brotherhood where there is “life in abundance for all” (John 10:10), according to the programme put forward by Jesus Christ.
Fr. Gilberto Antonio Orsolin SAC
FOOTNOTES
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1. The Earth Charter, Haia (June 29 2000)
2. Leonardo Boff was a member of the Earth Charter initiative: https://cartadellaterra.org/noticias-postleonardo-boff-afinidades-entre-la-enciclica-laudato-si-y-la-carta-de-la-terra/
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