I have begun to publish sections and segments of the Popes letter on OUR network of blogs (NatuRedux.com) as well as on Linkedin & Quora & Newsvine & NewsTalkers and will add my comments over time. Pappa francescos 180 page letter is much less about religion than it is about nature and the planet earth. He proposes some fairly radical yet simple and understandable solutions for humankind. It is way past time to start paying attention to what we are all doing or allowing others to do.

1. “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”.1

2. This sister now cries out to us because of
the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible
use and abuse of the goods with which
God has endowed her. We have come to see
ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to
plunder her at will. The violence present in our
hearts, wounded by sin, is also reflected in the
symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, in the
water, in the air and in all forms of life. This is
why the earth herself, burdened and laid waste,
is among the most abandoned and maltreated of
our poor; she “groans in travail” (Rom 8:22). We
have forgotten that we ourselves are dust of the
earth (cf. Gen 2:7); our very bodies are made up
of her elements, we breathe her air and we receive
life and refreshment from her waters.

Nothing in this world is indifferent to us
1 Canticle of the Creatures, in Francis of Assisi: Early Documents
, vol. 1, New York-London-Manila, 1999, 113-114.