« Undergo Ecological Conversion, Pope Francis Urges »

With what language can we urge one another to go further on the ecological heroic journey to OneEarth living? Pope Francis searches for such language toward the end of his encyclical, Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home. Pope Francis expresses great concern that despite all that is being done, the dangerous trends in air, soils, water, and climate are not reversing. Slowing the trends is not enough; they must be reversed.

Among the words he uses, ecological conversion strike me as especially important. “Conversion” is recognized by people of diverse faiths as describing a reorientation of life, a new identity center, brought about by encountering God. Across creation what’s happening is “divine speech” calling us to deep, deep change—ecological conversion. Quoting now from Laudato Si, the encyclical getting worldwide attention: “A commitment this lofty cannot be sustained by doctrine alone,” Pope Francis writes. He speaks of the need for “a spirituality capabe of inspiring us” (Para. 216). Then he calls out Christians with words that apply to many: “The ecological crisis is also a summons to profound interior conversion. It must be said that some committed and prayerful Christians, with the excuse of realism and pragmatism, tend to ridicule expressions of concern for the environment. Others are passive; they choose not to change their habits and thus become inconsistent. So what they all need is an ‘ecological conversion.’” (Para. 217)

Francis goes on to explain that ecological conversion cannot be only an individual experience. “The ecological conversion needed to bring about lasting change is also a community conversion” (Para. 219). The change needed cannot be achieved by adding up the sum of increasing ecological acts. It comes through community networks bonding together to make the changes in our region.

Nor does the community element of ecological conversion include only humans. It converts us from dominating Nature to become part of “that sublime fraternity with all creation which Saint Francis of Assisi so radiantly embodied” (Para. 221). Living in a relationship with species that thinks of them as sisters and brothers calls us to abandon the paradigm that thinks of nature as there for our use. Rather, we are sisters and brothers, kin in Earth’s family of inhabitants. It’s a viewpoint essential for OneEarth living.