ENCYCLICAL LETTER
LAUDATO SI’
OF THE HOLY FATHER
FRANCIS
ON CARE FOR OUR COMMON HOME
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
Canticle of the Creatures, in Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, vol. 1, New York-London-Manila, 1999, 113-114.
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of her elements, we breathe her air and we receive life and refreshment from her waters.
Nothing in this world is indifferent to us
3. More than fifty years ago, with the world teetering on the brink of nuclear crisis, Pope Saint
John XXIII wrote an Encyclical which not only
rejected war but offered a proposal for peace. He
addressed his message Pacem in Terris to the entire “Catholic world” and indeed “to all men and
women of good will”. Now, faced as we are with
global environmental deterioration, I wish to address every person living on this planet. In my
Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, I wrote
to all the members of the Church with...