The first reading of the Praised be ‘ inevitably focuses on the many issues that the new encyclical and touches on many ideas that it offers, from climate change to GMOs, from water rights to biodiversity loss , overcrowding of public transport advice for daily life more sustainable. Slowly, the hours passed, when it picks up the text, emerges the perspective that gives the focal unit in an encyclical that is long and complicated, but anything but fragmentary: the integral ecology. Pope Francis takes the term ‘ecology’ not in the ordinary meaning of a superficial and often some concern ‘green’, but in the much deeper systemic a look that focuses on the relationship of the parties with each other and with everything ‘ Everything is connected ‘,’ Everything is in relationship ‘, he repeats continuously. The world is an ecosystem, and you can not act on the one hand without the other being affected. This approach is a step forward that the Praised be ‘ delivery to all those who read it, believers and non-believers. The integral ecology asks us to seek what unites phenomena that are often thought of as separate from the social justice and the environment: “There are two separate crisis, an environmental and social one, but one and complex socio-environmental crisis “(139). If we ask the toil of complexity, this approach allows you to integrate disciplines (exact sciences, social and human, philosophy and theology, politics and economics, etc.), Professionalism (scientists and technicians, researchers and teachers, social workers and civil servants, businessmen and politicians) and size of the person (spiritual, professional, intellectual, emotional, religious) that the broken world we used to isolate.
It seems so obvious the profound link between the major global environmental issues to small daily actions to protect the environment and the territory, such as recycling or energy conservation: they are not ‘green ascetic duties’, but acts of love that express our dignity and give shape to an ecological culture. This “can not be reduced to a series of urgent responses and partial [...].
should be a different look, a thought, a policy, an educational program, a lifestyle and a spirituality that give shape to a resistance against the advance of the technocratic paradigm ‘(111). If the degradation of the environment and society are caused by the lack of an integral vision, then the therapy to exit “from the spiral of self-destruction in which we are sinking” (163) can not be that dialogue.
As Pope Francis himself says, the Church does not have a catalog of solutions to offer more or less be imposed. Rather offers a method to process them together, both at the level of international politics, with a view to governance of the global commons; As a national and local level, in decision-making, for example on new initiatives and development projects.
To produce lasting fruit this dialogue must be “honest and transparent”, based on the willingness to put on the table all the information available; Transparency is also the best antidote against corruption. It must also be inclusive, giving all stakeholders, especially the weakest, the opportunity to participate and make their voices heard. It finally has to integrate all the different perspectives: the scientific and technical, social and economic ones, but also ethical and religious. In this line, the integral ecology opposes any kind of reductionism. This is the case of logic in science and technology, which has produced outstanding results for improvement of human life, but when he tries to impose itself as the sole reference becomes technocracy and “affects human life and society in all their dimensions” (107).
Visions equally reductionist are excessive anthropocentrism of the modern world, which “continues to undermine any reference to something common and any attempt to strengthen social ties” (116), or ecological initiatives too sectoral and parceled: renouncing to take a systemic, often end up playing into the hands of technocratic logic that at least in intention contrast. Comes into play, another line of integration, that between the scientific approach and the contemplative gaze, able to grasp reality as a mystery that we can not dominate, with a focus on dignity and a genuine affection for each creature, even the most seemingly insignificant: this contemplative St. Francis is shown as a model.
This awareness of an emotional connection with all creatures “can not be despised as a romance irrational, because it influences the choices that determine our behavior” (11). If we draw close to nature without this opening to amazement and wonder, if we no longer talk the language of brotherhood and beauty in our relationship with the world, we will act always and only by rulers, from consumers or exploiters of natural resources and others, unable to escape the logic of maximization of individual profit. Ultimately, take the perspective proposed by the encyclical puts a question on the meaning of life and the values at the basis of social life: “For what purpose we came into this life? For that purpose we work and struggle? Because this earth needs us? “If we do not ask these basic questions – says Pope Francis -” I do not think that our ecological concerns can obtain important effects “(160).
With the proposal of this integral ecology, the Praised be ‘
is a step forward, moving in the dynamics of attention to the reality that has always structure the path of the Church’s social doctrine, beginning with the Rerum Novarum (1891) by Leo XIII, who in front of the industrial revolution had addressed the question of the workers in the key social justice. Now Pope Francis challenges us to a new leap: we are not only members of the same human family, but “they were created by the same Father, we all beings in the universe are united by invisible ties and form a kind of universal family, a sublime communion which leads us to a sacred respect, loving and humble “(89). This new way of looking at the world the Praised be ‘ throws the first seeds, waiting to sprout and bear fruit, as Pope Francis himself says: “It is still waiting for the development of a new synthesis that goes beyond the false dialectic of the last centuries. Christianity itself, remaining faithful to its identity and treasure of truth which he received from Jesus Christ, and you always think back riesprime in dialogue with the new historical situations, leaving bloom so her perennial newness “(121).
* Director of Social Updates
No comments:
Post a Comment