The Caritas Confederation welcomes the new apostolic exhortation Laudate Deum, released today by Pope Francis on the liturgical feast of Saint Francis of Assisi. The letter is an update of his encyclical letter Laudato Si’, published in May 2015, and expresses the Pope’s “heartfelt concerns about the care of our common home”.
Caritas shares Pope Francis’ concerns about climate change and especially its impact on the most vulnerable people, who often have to leave their homes to escape the consequences of globally increasing temperatures and environmental pollution, including diseases, drought, floods, heavy rains, lack of food and drinkable water, and coastal erosion.
In response to Pope Francis’ messages within the encyclical letters “Laudato Si'” (2015) and “Fratelli tutti” (2020), Caritas Internationalis launched its global campaign “Together We” on integral ecology in December 2021 to mobilise the whole confederation in creating a “community of care”. Caritas workers and volunteers continue to find creative ways in caring for the environment at a grassroots level, while supporting people suffering from climate change.
Now, the apostolic exhortation Laudate Deum offers Caritas organisations new inspiration to fight environmental and social degradation. Eight years after his first ecological encyclical, Pope Francis’ appeal about the care of the environment has become even more heartfelt and urgent: “I have realised that our responses have not been adequate, while the world in which we live is collapsing and may be nearing the breaking point.” In the six chapters and 73 paragraphs of Laudate Deum, Pope Francis calls each of us, especially those in power, to co-responsibility and to act before it is too late.
The Holy Father dedicates a chapter to the climate conferences without hiding that there were poor results in some cases. He cites, for example, the “disappointment of COP25 in Madrid” and also highlights some progress, such as the step forward achieved at COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh in consolidating a system for financing “loss and damage” in countries most affected by climate disasters. The fifth chapter of the Laudate Deum is focused on the upcoming COP28, which will take place in Dubai from 30 November until 12 December 2023. Pope Francis believes COP28 may “represent a change of direction, showing that everything done since 1992 was in fact serious and worth the effort, or else it will be a great disappointment and jeopardise whatever good has been achieved thus far” (54).
The new apostolic exhortation is an extreme appeal to translate the widespread concern about climate change and environmental degradation into concrete action: “We must move beyond the mentality of appearing to be concerned but not having the courage needed to produce substantial changes” (56).