Is the Earth moving under our feet? Are the artificial divisions which have kept Americans in separate camps unable to unite for a common purpose losing their power? From the remarkable movement to remove the Confederate battle flag to unlikely supporters of the Catholic Pope, we are seeing alliances thought impossible just last year. This diary is about the latter inexplicable development.
Pope Francis released his Letter to All Humanity which is a Magna Carta for all creation and the poor. Wide-ranging and erudite, Laudato Si speaks to Everyman, indicting those who harm creation and empowering humans to embrace an ethos of love and stewardship to save our common home.
In his The Wild Hunt article, Pope’s Environmental Encyclical Elicits Pagan Responses, Terence P. Ward writes about how the Pagan community views Pope Francis' Encyclical. On the whole, while acknowledging the Church's contribution over the millennia to patrimony and other ills, Pagans appear to welcome this message which coincides with their own world view.
Many, if not most, Pagans consider the Earth to be sacred. This has been true for at least as long as Wicca and other modern Pagan religions have been in the public eye. For many in the mainstream media, this is considered an identifying characteristic of Paganism. The very first paragraph of the Encyclical speaks to this: “Laudato si ’, mi’ Signore” – “Praise be to you, my Lord”. In the words of this beautiful canticle, Saint Francis of Assisi reminds us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us. “Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with coloured flowers and herbs”. Ward's article is well worth a read. It is illustrative of how people with a strong ethic of humanity being a part of nature can embrace the Pope's message while acknowledging past failures. Below is a sampling of comments from the article: If you think Pope Francis’ encyclical is only about climate change, you need to read it for yourself. It’s about the inherent value of all living things, about a ‘throwaway culture’ that mistakenly seeks meaning in things, about the connections between humans and the rest of Nature, and about how the results of our environmental desecrations are borne predominantly by the poor.~snip~
Pope Francis gets it.
This from John Halstead, who has been a driving force behind the Pagan Community Statement on the Environment: Repeatedly throughout the statement, the Pope observes that everything is interconnected, which is an article of faith for many Pagans.~snip~
In my mind, this echoes the Pagan environmental statement. In fact, something like these words might have been spoken at Pagan Spirit Gathering this year or at a CUUPS summer solstice ritual.
Pope Francis has created a masterpiece, in my opinion, in the recent encyclical on the environment. Rather than lurking in the safety of official doctrine, he has expounded theologically on a solid grounding of science, economics and social justice. While I wish he had been able to go further in calling for population decrease, I agree with his assertion that blaming overpopulation for our ecological woes is disingenuous. [my emphasis] After reading the complete document my personal understanding of the nature of Catholic Church is profoundly affected. Here, the institution most responsible for the spread of Patriarchy, colonial power, suppression of indigenous cultures, cultural and environmental genocide, takes an about face. All of this marks a tremendous theological shift, a reversal of centuries of church doctrine. Pope Francis believes that there is one God (though he also speaks eloquently of Mary, who “grieves for the sufferings of the crucified poor and for the creatures of this world laid waste by human power.”) My path is one not of belief, but of relationship, and I am connected with many gods — the Feri gods and the gods of my Celtic ancestors. But that is about all that separates my perspective on the world and the perspective the Pope articulates in this encyclical. And that is deeply healing to my once Catholic heart.Look beyond the orange aspergillum, for the Canticle of the Sun written by St. Francis of Assisi in 1225.
[Photo courtesy of Pagan Warrior Goddess ]