San Beda College Alabang
School of Law
Don Manolo Blvd, Alabang Hills, Muntinlupa City
In compliance with the Requirements of Seminar 3
REPORT ON LAUDATO SI
(ON CARE FOR OUR COMMON HOME)
by:
PLATERO, Jose Miguel T.
2-E
A.Y. 2016-2017
I.
Author
The author of the encyclical is our Holy Pope Francis. The encyclical, dated 24 May
2015, was officially published at noon on 18 June 2015.
II.
Summary of Laudato Si
Laudato Si is Pope Francis Encyclical on the environment or more formally On Care
for Our Common Home. Laudato Si means Praise be to you which is the first line of a canticle
by St. Francis that praises God with all of his creation.
Pope Francis' Encyclical is a wake up call to mankind where we should understand the
damage that man has done to the environment and to other people. Though it focuses mainly on
man's effect on the environment, it also talks about the theological, philosophicalm and cultural
causes that threaten the bonds of man to nature and each other in different circumstances. This
letter is a challenge for every believer and non-believer to protect our home.
CHAPTER ONE WHAT IS HAPPENING TO OUR COMMON HOME
- Summary quote of this chapters message: a sober look at our world shows that the
degree of human intervention, often in the service of business interests and
consumerism, is actually making our earth less rich and beautiful, ever more limited
and grey, even as technological advances and consumer goods continue to abound
limitlessly. We seem to think that we can substitute an irreplaceable and irretrievable
beauty with something which we have created ourselves
CHAPTER TWO THE GOSPEL OF CREATION
- Summary quote of this chapters message: We are not God. The earth was here
before us and it has been given to us. Although it is true that we Christians have at
times incorrectly interpreted the Scriptures, nowadays we must forcefully reject the
notion that our being created in Gods image and given dominion over the earth
justifies absolute domination over other creatures.
CHAPTER THREE THE HUMAN ROOTS OF THE ECOLOGICAL CRISIS
- Summary quote of this chapters message: It can be said that many problems of
todays world stem from the tendency, at times unconscious, to make the method and
aims of science and technology an epistemological paradigm which shapes the lives
of individuals and the workings of society.
The effects of imposing this model on reality as a whole, human and social, are seen
in the deterioration of the environment, but this is just one sign of a reductionism
which affects every aspect of human and social life. We have to accept that
technological products are not neutral, for they create a framework which ends up
conditioning lifestyles and shaping social possibilities along the lines dictated by the
interests of certain powerful groups
III.
CHAPTER FOUR INTEGRAL ECOLOGY
- Summary quote of this chapters message: We urgently need a humanism capable of
bringing together the different fields of knowledge, including economics, in the
service of a more integral and integrating vision. Today, the analysis of environmental
problems cannot be separated from the analysis of human, family, work related and
urban contexts, nor from how individuals relate to themselves, which leads in turn to
how they relate to others and to the environment
CHAPTER FIVE LINES OF APPROACH AND ACTION
- Summary quote of this chapters message: Interdependence obliges us to think of
one world with a common plan. Yet the same ingenuity which has brought about
enormous technological progress has so far proved incapable of finding effective
ways of dealing with grave environmental and social problems worldwide. A global
consensus is essential for confronting the deeper problems, which cannot be resolved
by unilateral actions on the part of individual countries.
CHAPTER SIX ECOLOGICAL EDUCATION AND SPIRITUALITY
- Summary quote of this chapters message: In calling to mind the figure of Saint
Francis of Assisi, we come to realize that a healthy relationship with creation is one
dimension of overall personal conversion, which entails the recognition of our errors,
sins, faults and failures, and leads to heartfelt repentance and desire to change
Problems/ Issues presented
1. Environmental Problems
-
The first chapter of the encyclical highlights the various problems of our earth or as
termed by Pope Francis, our Common Home.
Population and Climate Change. The issue of water; Loss of biodiversity; Decline in
the quality of human life and the breakdown of society; Global inequality
2. How people acts nowadays towards the earth nature;
Human beings no longer recognize their right place with respect to the world and take
on a self-centered position, focused exclusively on themselves and on their own
power. This results in a use and throw away logic that justifies every type of waste,
environmental or human, that treats both the other and nature as simple objects and
leads to a myriad of forms of domination. It is this mentality that leads to exploiting
children, abandoning the elderly, forcing others into slavery and over-evaluating the
capacity of the market to regulate itself, practising human trafficking, selling pelts of
animals in danger of extinction and of blood diamonds.
3. Limitations of scientific progress; Solutions which are not met in summit due to certain
factors
-
Due to certain factors, the scientific progress was delimited which then prevents our
scientists to find solutions to the pressing problems of the environment. Hence, our
pope do suggests that there shall be a development of honest and transparent
decision-making processes, in order to discern which policies and business
initiatives can bring about genuine integral development.
4. ECOLOGICAL EDUCATION AND SPIRITUALITY
-
IV.
Education and training are the key challenges: change is impossible without
motivation and a process of education. It is said that the ecological education is
needed in order for us to know how would we able to preserve and save our common
home. Children and adults alike, should engage in furtherance of their environmental
education as what the Pope suggested as a remedy for the never ending problem of
our environment. By developing our individual, God-given capacities, an ecological
conversion can inspire us to greater creativity and enthusiasm.
How does it relate to your course (Seminar 3)?
Pope Francis brings to light a valid concern regarding environmental degradation as it
relates to human poverty. There are many theological, sociological, psychological, and
ecological dimensions to this encyclical, all of which must be pondered and addressed in an
ecumenical fashion. In fact, Pope Francis summarizes this thought by saying, we have to
realize 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 (paragraph 49). Hes not promoting pantheism/eco-worship; hes asking for
ecumenism and solidarity with the poor.
We simply cannot maintain our complacency about the growing global crisis that has
affected all of creation, most of all humanity.
In Laudato Si, it highlights not only about the problems that the environment is currently
facing but the relationship that we have in our common home and how should we act upon it in
order for it to be saved since it is all known to us that our environments has lots of problems
which are still unsolved due to various causes which includes us humans, through our
intervention.
Laudato si relates in our Seminar 3 course as the subject matter basically teaches us about
morality, human justice and our relationship to God and how we should act in accordance to his
word. It relates in the sense that it speaks of about relationships that we, humans have in God and
what should we do in order to act in accordance to the will of the Lord. Although, Laudato Si
speaks in particular about the environment, its problems and how should humans act upon it for
it to be saved, the Seminar 3, as a subject matter, is speaking in General. It speaks of our
relationship with God and mankind, how we should act in order to be moral, attain human justice
or merely justice.
V.
Bibliography
http://catholicexchange.com/ecological-stewardship-a-reflection-on-laudato-si
https://focusoncampus.org/content/summary-of-laudato-si-pope-francis-encyclical-on-
the-environment-7016a31d-a7ce-429a-bdcd-1893d8c9fe7d\
www.vatican.va
http://catholicclimatemovement.global/laudato-si-ch-3-summary-and-discussion-guide-
on-the-human-roots-of-the-ecological-crisis/
http://thetablet.org/laudato-si-a-study-guide-and-summary/
