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On Thursday, Pope Francis will publish his encyclical, "Laudato Si': On care for our common home," on the environment and human ecology.
In the run-up to the encyclical release, NCR has revisited Francis' major speeches, addresses and messages on environmental issues in an effort to better understand the ideas that might appear in Laudato Si'. The texts from Francis' papacy have touched on a multitude of themes:
- the call to care for creation;
- the culture of waste and throwaway culture;
- hunger and poverty;
- climate change;
- water issues and access;
- the responsibility to future generations and the role of young people.
You can reread the full Pope's Eco Quotes series by cycling through the slideshow below.
ECO QUOTES ARCHIVE
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Why the name 'Francis'
“These days we do not have a very good relationship with creation, do we?”
Read the full post here.
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Being a Protector, Part 1
“The vocation of being a ‘protector’ … means protecting all creation, the beauty of the created world, as the Book of Genesis tells us and as Saint Francis of Assisi showed us.”
Read the full post here.
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Being a Protector, Part 2
“This is a service that the Bishop of Rome is called to carry out, yet one to which all of us are called, so that the star of hope will shine brightly.”
Read the full post here.
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Life's most essential element
“Water is the most essential element for life, and the future of humanity depends on our capacity to guard it and share it.”
Read the full post here.
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The gift of knowledge
“The knowledge that comes from the Holy Spirit … is a special gift, which leads us to grasp, through creation, the greatness and love of God and his profound relationship with every creature.”
Read the full post here.
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To cultivate or neglect
“Cultivating and caring for creation … means making the world increase with responsibility, transforming it so that it may be a garden, an inhabitable place for us all.”
Read the full post here.
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The culture of waste
“If there are children in so many parts of the world who have nothing to eat, that is not news, it seems normal. It cannot be so!”
Read the full post here.
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Time is running out
“The time to find global solutions is running out. We can find appropriate solutions only if we act together and in agreement. There is therefore a clear, definitive and urgent ethical imperative to act.”
Read the full post here.
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Alternative Energy Sources
“We need only think, for example, of alternative sources of energy, the development of which will assist in the protection of the environment.”
Read the full post here.
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An Important Step
“I think that an important step is to tear down decisively the barriers of individualism, self withdrawal and the slavery of profit at all costs.”
Read the full post here.
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Education in Humanity
“To educate in solidarity therefore means to educate ourselves in humanity: to build a society that is truly human means to put the person and his or her dignity at the centre, always, and never to sell him out to the logic of profit.”
Read the full post here.
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A Case of Exclusion
“How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points? This is a case of exclusion.”
Read the full post here.
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The fragile world
“Thanks to our bodies, God has joined us so closely to the world around us that we can feel the desertification of the soil almost as a physical ailment, and the extinction of a species as a painful disfigurement.”
Read the full post here.
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People, not numbers
“Those who suffer due to food insecurity and malnutrition are people, not numbers, and precisely because of their dignity as people, they come before any calculation or economic plan.”
Read the full post here.
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An inalienable right
“Hunger is criminal, food is an inalienable right.”
Read the full post here.
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I had to be here
“When I witnessed this disaster from Rome, I felt that I had to be here.”
Read the full post here.
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Be concerned
“Dear young people, the just use and stewardship of the earth's resources is an urgent task, and you have an important contribution to make.”
Read the full post here.
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A loan from our children
“The earth is not an inheritance that we receive from our parents, but a loan that our children give to us, in order that we safeguard it and make it flourish and return it to them.”
Read the full post here.
