Endless and tense meetings, exhausting battles of words, muffled anger superimposed on the alarming speeches of scientists… At COP 28, the serenity emanating from the “Pavilion of Faith” contrasts with the general frenzy. Nestled in a tinted glass building, the space offers reflection and tranquility to curious people who come to interact with various religious leaders. Visitors could even have met Pope Francis, who had planned his trip for a long time before abandoning it due to his state of health. This visit during a COP would have been a first for a leader of the Catholic Church. The confirmation, above all, that the sovereign pontiff has largely embraced the ecological cause. But it was from a distance, through a committed message read by the Secretary of State of the Holy See, that the Pope finally spoke. Exhorting to “emerge from the constraints, particularisms and nationalists, from the models of the past”, he called to “adopt[er] a common vision by committing us all now and without delay to a necessary global ecological conversion”. Would Francis be the first green pope?
The question, posed in this way, annoys Brother Thomas Michelet. “Everyone, Christians included, are ecstatic as if he were the first to talk about ecology,” sighs the vice-dean of the faculty of theology at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, who has dedicated a book to the relationship between the sovereign pontiffs and ecology. Papal thought on the subject was already reflected in the scattered reflections and writings of John Paul II and Benedict XVI, he recalls. But Francis marked a major change in highlighting the climate crisis and the way we talk about it – “a communications genius”, recognizes the Dominican. In May 2015, an encyclical, a solemn letter from the Pope addressed to the entire Catholic Church, had the effect of a revolution. Baptized Laudato si’ (Praised be you), she develops for the first time the notion of integral ecology. “If the encyclical Rerum novarum marked the beginning of social doctrine on labor and justice issues at the end of the 19th century, Laudato si’ opened a new field by declaring that social justice cannot be exempt from ecological justice”, analyzes Laura Morosini, European director of Laudato Si’, an environmentalist and Christian movement born from this call.
God, humans, and nature
The first ecological stone laid by a sovereign pontiff dates back to 1970. Before the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in Rome, Paul VI already mentioned the possibility of an “ecological catastrophe” future. A position taken before the letter which still surprises with its very contemporary resonance. “When we reread this speech, we wonder if it was not written to evoke the situation we are experiencing,” admits Xavier Gravend-Tirole, assistant professor of spirituality and religious ethics at the University of Montreal. This word that only a few theologians kept in memory resurfaces in the light of current commitment. After fifty years of preaching in the desert, summarizes Thomas Michelet, the Church found in Francis a dream spokesperson. In October, a few weeks before the start of the climate summit in Dubai, the Pope reiterated with a new very “green” text, with anti-capitalist overtones, in which he calls, as in 2015, to preserve the “common home”. “Our reactions are insufficient while the world that welcomes us is collapsing and perhaps approaching a breaking point,” he writes, thus taking up concepts defended by ecologists and scientists.
Far from an ethereal analysis of the climate crisis, denouncing its “human origin”, Pope Francis surprised by his ability to draw a clear and educational observation of the upheavals at work. A success which can be explained by his method, detailed to Elena Lasida during a meeting at the Vatican. “To write Laudato si’, he first asked for an overview of scientific knowledge, and only then brought together theologians”, recalls the professor from the Catholic Institute of Paris. While science and religion have often been opposed, order has its importance. Pope thus validates the contribution of the first as a point of support for the evolution of the second. Because more than on the form and the use of well-felt expressions, Francis has initiated several inflections on the substance. Perhaps the most important: his reflection on the interdependence between humans and their environment. A concept of which the expression “everything is linked” is the translation. “It composes a triptych between God, the human world and the world of what “We call nature, which he thinks in a sophisticated way”, insists Xavier Gravend-Tirole.
Spirituality of sobriety
Is it this notion of interdependence that he came to distill into the realm of giant highways, artificial islands and 4x4s running the air conditioning at full blast? In this large negotiating room where the interests of countries and industrialists collide, Francis was expected to deliver a more universal speech. “His presence would have been a real signal sent to the world. He carries a powerful message which sets essential moral guidelines,” says political scientist François Gemenne, member of the IPCC. As well as NGO leaders and scientists, representatives of religions can obtain observer status at the COP. A position that allows them to participate in round tables, follow discussions and meet delegations. With real weight on decisions? “It is difficult to say how this influence translates concretely. The pope does not have direct political power, but he can have effects on certain political leaders,” tempers the professor from the University of Montreal.
Respect for others, solidarity, and justice… Pope Francis resonates the fundamental values of the Church. And in a world in transition, full of aspirations for sobriety, this word finds a new echo. From Greta Thunberg to Emmanuel Macron, including Sultan al-Jaber, the UAE president of COP 28, he meets and exchanges with leading personalities to infuse his message. “It asks the question of how to transform oneself internally, how to cultivate a spirituality of sobriety, temperance… And therefore of leaving the consumer society,” describes Xavier Gravend-Tirole.
The Church at the forefront
Far from the cozy confines of climate conferences, it is more in the daily life of the Church and its flock that the pope’s green imprint finds concrete implications. Initiatives have multiplied since the encyclical. In France, the Green Church movement, launched in 2017 to support Catholic infrastructures (churches, monasteries, diocesan houses) in their ecological transition, now has 850 labeled communities. And this conversion is not limited to local eco-gestures: religious institutions are following suit. In 2021, more than 70 of them, representing $4.2 billion in assets, announced their divestment from fossil fuels. “The Pope’s declarations had a very clear effect, defends Laura Morosini, of the Laudato Si’ movement. This sends a strong signal to industrialists by declaring that investing in them is not neutral and that it poses a moral problem for us, just like prostitution or the arms trade.”
Despite the efforts, there is still a long way to go. The speech is still struggling to engage the faithful en masse, confirms an Ifop survey published in September: 52% of practicing French Catholics believe that it is the role of the Church to talk about environment and climate change. “It has sometimes been said that the Church is behind society. But on the subject of the environment, it is avant-garde compared to what Christians do, who are still too timid,” believes Xavier Gravend-Tirole. Enough to amply justify its place at the high mass of the climate.
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