Pope Francis in his apostolic exhortation ‘Laudate Deum’ warns the earth is at a breaking point

Pope Francis warned the clock is ticking on the dangers of climate change — and both a paradigm shift and practical action are critically needed to avert looming disasters in nature and human society.

The pope released his new apostolic exhortation “Laudate Deum” (“Praise God”) Oct. 4 as a follow-up to his 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home. The exhortation’s publication coincided with the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, patron of ecology, whose famous canticle inspired the title of Laudato Si’.

Though only about one-fifth the length of Laudato Si’ (which it references extensively), the exhortation’s message is even more urgent. “The world in which we live is collapsing and may be nearing the breaking point,” Pope Francis wrote. “Climate change is one of the principal challenges facing society and the global community.”

“Laudate Deum” reiterates key messages that have resonated throughout Pope Francis’ papacy — among them, concern for the marginalized, care for creation, human ecology and a “synodal” approach to resolving global problems.

With the effects of climate change “borne by the most vulnerable people,” the issue is “intimately related to the dignity of human life,” he said.

Addressed to “all people of good will,” the exhortation declares that “it is no longer possible to doubt the human … origin of climate change,” citing data from sources such as the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“The overwhelming majority of scientists specializing in the climate” support the correlation between global climate phenomena and spikes in greenhouse gas emissions, he said.

While noting that “not every concrete catastrophe” is due to global climate change, humans bear responsibility for specific changes that have led to “extreme phenomena” — such as storms, heat waves and flooding — that are “increasingly frequent and intense,” the pope said.

He pointed to rapid, human-driven increases in greenhouse gas emissions, which trap radiation from the sun in the earth’s atmosphere and warm the planet. The global average temperature — a metric that tracks changes in the earth’s surface temperature against long-term averages for a given location and date — has risen over the past 50 years at a rate that could approach the recommended ceiling of 1.5 degrees Celsius in just 10 years, the pope said.

That acceleration has a profound impact, causing dangerous shifts in climate and weather with effects ultimately felt “in the areas of healthcare, sources of employment, access to resources, housing (and) forced migrations,” Pope Francis said.

International climate conferences held over the past several decades have had mixed results, said Pope Francis.

He said COP28, set to take place Nov. 30-Dec. 12 in Dubai, will either prove to be a turning point for decisive action or “a great disappointment” that imperils any progress made so far.

Pope Francis said the planet itself has become a mirror of a deeply flawed view of human life and activity. Such a “technocratic paradigm” exalts technological and economic power as sources of reality, goodness and truth, promising unlimited potential if methodically developed.

In recent years, that paradigm has advanced still further, with a goal of “(increasing) human power beyond anything imaginable, before which nonhuman reality is a mere resource at its disposal,” he said.

The poor pay the highest price while inflicting the least damage on the planet, Pope Francis said, citing the United Nations Environment Programme’s 2022 Emissions Gap Report, which found that per capita greenhouse gas emissions of richer countries far exceed those of poorer ones.

The question of human power itself must be reexamined, and “human beings must be recognized as a part of nature,” the pope said, stressing that “everything is connected” and “no one is saved alone.”

Gina Christian is a national reporter for OSV News.

Featured Image: Birds fly at sunset near the mountains of Assisi, Italy, the birthplace of St. Francis, patron of ecology. (CNS photo/Paul Haring/Italy)