A Letter from Francis

I have never met a Catholic who had read the encyclical letter of Pope Francis, Laudato Si. That’s a pity.

The California Governor, Jerry Brown, has said that when politics fails, morality may help.

Francis majored in chemistry, not physics or climatology, but he is familiar enough with the way science works to  read the climate science and understand it. He knows that scientists could not possibly be involved in some multi-national hoax.  Science is tested again and again. Results must be reproducible.

The pope’s focus is on human compassion, a moral issue.

An Encyclical is basically a letter to the faithful. It is not binding in the same way that the Ten Commandments are, but it strongly urges a certain position. Encyclicals are not the favorite reading of Catholics.  The Letter by a recent pope on human reproduction has been a resounding failure: Catholics’ use of birth control is similar to that of the rest of the population.  An earlier Encyclical by another pontiff long ago railed against “sins that cry to heaven,” and listed depriving the workman of his wages alongside of homosexuality. It is a rather confusing message for today’s believers.

This Encyclical by the current pope is different. Francis has expertise enough in science to know what he is doing and he appeals to a theme that people of almost any religious belief are predisposed to hear: loving one’s neighbor

I have read only one review.  It was by an economist  who said that the Encyclical was bad economics. Guess why. Real economists, he said, rely only on the Bottom Line.  He took objection to the fact that the pope is speaking of “externalities”–that means the effects that decisions have on the people and systems out side of the business. Morality, of course, would  come under the name of externalities.  The pope is writing about morality. Is there anything new about that?

It is generally agreed that those who will suffer the most from global warming and rising tides will be the poor, both poor individuals in developed countries and the poorer nations. It is, of course, already happening.  It might be more realistic to admit that everyone is going to suffer, but let that go for a moment. Most religions urge compassion for the poor and the less advantaged. Thus the Encyclical is right in line with mainstream morality. What’s new is that it’s a wakeup call to see how climate change calls us to step up our efforts and act now.

With no fire and brimstone, just calm reasoning, Laudato Si deserves more of an audience than it has had.