I expect that St Francis is saying that like the
sun and the moon each one of us is loved by God. To show respect to the sun and moon and the
universe is to show respect to beloved fellow creatures and to the One who has
brought everything into being. He wrote
this hymn to thank the Creator for the beauty and the wonder of Creation. In praising God we are giving voice to all of
creation. Of all God’s visible creatures
we alone can praise him as we lift our hands in prayer. So the awesomeness of the universe moved St
Francis to feel kinship with all creation and to praise the Lord on its behalf.
The world has changed greatly since the time of St
Francis. Technology, with all the
advantages it has brought, has also given us the ability to abuse the
universe. Over twenty-five years ago Pope
John Paul II was drawing the attention of the world to the damage we were
causing to the environment. In his
document on World Peace (1st January 1990) he wrote: ‘Modern society will find
no solution to the ecological problem unless it takes a serious look at its
lifestyle...Simplicity, moderation and discipline as well as a spirit of
sacrifice must become part of everyday life, but all suffer the consequences of
the careless habits of the minority.’
Papal messages on World Peace Day – 1st January each year – often
stressed the connection between peace between peoples and care of the
earth. John Paul II in 2001 called for
an ‘ecological conversion’ for everyone and warned that humanity needed to stop
before the abyss.
Pope Emeritus Benedict was even more
insistent. He was called ‘the green
Pope’. He had solar panels installed on
the roof of the Pope Paul VI auditorium and funded the planting of trees in
Hungary as a way of off-setting carbon emissions. Pope Francis in his homily on his
inauguration as Bishop of Rome spoke at great length about our duty to respect
the environment.
The United Nations has made good progress in
nudging governments towards targets that are achievable. One hundred and sixty countries have signed
pledges on the steps they have committed themselves to take. For over twenty one years the United Nations
has been trying to convince governments of the urgency of the problem. The situation has changed greatly for the
better in recent years. We are coming
close to achieving a remarkable energy revolution – and one that would not
require a political revolution. But the
necessary changes won’t happen if the wrong people end up in power. In the United States, the Republican
presidential candidate, Donald Trump, has said that he would rescind
‘job-destroying’ environmental actions by the Obama administration within 100
days of taking office. He also said that
he would cancel the international climate deal that was reached last year in
Paris. Trump was making his first major
speech on energy before a crowd of more than seven thousand people in North
Dakota. This is a largely Republican
state which has suffered from the plummeting price of oil in the past two
years. Pope Francis has crossed swords
with Donald Trump a couple of months ago on the issue of building a wall
between the United States and Mexico – a wall that Trump says Mexico will pay
for. Pope Francis said that building
bridges was a more Christian thing to do than building wall. In spite of his outlandish views on a wide
range of issues, commentators are saying that it is quite possible for him to
be elected President of the United States.
What a scary prospect that would be!
We can expect many respected figures to round on
Donald Trump and seek to demolish his arguments and expose his policies to
ridicule. So far this has not
worked. No matter what he says or how he
says it he seems to just ‘keep on rolling along’. But I wrote this well over a week ago and a
week is a long time in politics. Fifty
years in the priesthood however is no time at all! Laudato si, mi Signore.
