2015-06-18 · Vatican City

Laudato Si' Encyclical

Pope Francis published the first papal encyclical devoted entirely to the environment, calling climate change a moral issue and arguing that care for the earth and care for the poor are inseparable.

On June 18, 2015, Pope Francis published Laudato Si' ("Praise Be to You"), subtitled "On Care for Our Common Home." It was the first encyclical in Church history devoted entirely to the environment. Francis argued that the ecological crisis was not merely a political or scientific issue but a moral and spiritual one. He connected environmental destruction directly to poverty, pointing out that the world's poorest people suffer the most from pollution, deforestation, and climate change despite contributing the least to the problem. He criticized a "throwaway culture" that treats both people and the natural world as disposable. He called for a new relationship between humanity and creation. The encyclical was deliberately timed to appear six months before the Paris climate conference and was widely credited with helping build political will for the Paris Agreement. Reaction was divided. Environmental groups and liberal Catholics praised it as prophetic. Conservative Catholics and fossil fuel industry allies criticized it as an overreach, arguing that a pope had no business pronouncing on climate science. Francis anticipated the objection: he acknowledged that the Church does not claim expertise in science, but insisted that when scientific consensus points to a crisis that disproportionately harms the poor, the Church has a duty to speak. Laudato Si' drew on the tradition of Catholic social teaching going back to Rerum Novarum, arguing that the same principles that demand just wages and workers' rights also demand responsible stewardship of the planet.

Why it matters

Established environmental stewardship as a central concern of Catholic social teaching and positioned the Church as a major voice in global climate policy.