Priest and politician study Laudato Si’ after Paris

Encyclical and climate summit had positive effects, say Father Rob Allore and MP Joyce Murray

The B.C. Catholic

Pope Francis and 195 nations have spoken: human beings need to take better care of the planet.

Last year, the Pope’s encyclical Laudato Si”, and a few months later, a summit on climate change in Paris, brought environmental concerns to the fore. Now a priest and a politician say it’s time to do something.

“At this Paris conference, 195 nations signed a pledge, an agreement, that confirms a willingness among nations to transition to a low carbon economy that would hopefully give rise to a safer, healthier world,” said Father Rob Allore, SJ, speaking at a free public event at St. Mark’s College Jan. 22.

Earlier in 2015, Pope Francis had also issued a challenge to recognize the “tremendous interdependence” of human beings and the natural world.

The Pope’s letter, said the Jesuit geneticist, was not addressed merely to the leadership of the Catholic Church, or to all Christians, but to the whole world.

“In our engagement with this issue of climate change, we have to learn to hear the cry of the earth as we also hear the cry of the poor,” Father Allore said.

“There is no room in (the Pope’s) mind, and in the minds of many, that we have this choice: either the economy or the environment. It has to be both, or in the end it will be neither.”

Harmony between the Creator, the natural world, and human beings is obvious at the start of the book of Genesis. “The earth is there to help us and sustain us, but it is also there for us to care for it,” he told a couple of hundred students, parishioners, and local social justice and environmental advocates.

Father Allore said the concept of interdependence is woven throughout Laudato Si’. “When part of nature is sick, we’re next.”

Pope Francis also stressed that politics and economics are not ends in themselves, but are meant to work in service of life.

“In conversations about politics and economics, we must start to understand that the development of new energy sources and sustainable use of natural resources must be looked at as a wise investment, as opposed to something we cannot afford,” said Father Allore.

Joyce Murray, the Liberal MP for Vancouver Quadra, also spoke about the results of Laudato Si’ and Paris, praising her party’s platform on environmental issues and taking jabs at the previous Conservative government.

“We want to reassume a leadership role on climate change, and we need to do it working with the provinces and territories, not as the federal government telling the provinces and territories what they need to do. That’s the essence of the Liberal Party’s message in Paris,” she told the large crowd.

World leaders in Paris agreed to try to keep the globe’s average surface temperature from rising more than two degrees. Murray said much good came from the summit, even though the agreements they made were not binding.

“There are 1,000 cities, including Vancouver, that have made a commitment to be 100 per cent renewable energy by 2050. If 1,000 cities can do that, that’s a great start and we can build from there.”

“We have to shift how we think,” Murray added, pointing to big oil and the economy, without addressing how communities could bring about local change.

Peter Meehan, president of St. Mark’s College, said, “Recognizing that the earth’s health is not a Catholic issue, Pope Francis has addressed his encyclical to every person living on this planet.”

The conference in Paris “is only the most recent example on the global stage of world leaders reacting to the need to protect our environment.”