Page 32 - Supplemento 2-2016 (ENG)

h.e. mons. silvano maria tomasi

that ecology is either integral - and it concerns the whole person and all the per-
sons and not only the safeguarding of natural balances - or it will not be there
even in that field. Integral means that it is either everywhere or nowhere.
Unfortunately we are very far from this universal destination. There are oppor-
tunity and income imbalances, at national as well as international level.
Imbalances in the distribution of negative externalities, deriving from the pro-
duction and consumption of goods and energy, the degradation of the environ-
ment, in which millions of people live and their dramatically precarious living and
working conditions, the volatility of the prices of raw materials and basic resour-
ces, which is increasingly dependant on financial mechanisms rather than on the
supply and demand equation, determining the definition of prices and commer-
cial strategies that do not reflect the reality of certain resources. The analysis sug-
gested by the encyclical does not confine itself to acknowledging the present
situation. “Laudato Si” is not only an ecological encyclical but it is a sociological,
social and Christological encyclical; in fact it deals with ecology, but within an evi-
dently Christological perspective. Like Saint Francis, Pope Francis too sees crea-
tion as illuminated by the Divine Word and destined to be summarized in Christ.
The destiny of the whole of creation goes through the mystery of Christ, the
Pope says. And exactly this perspective is what differentiates a catholic vision
from all the others that are in the public arena of social culture. I think this vision
suggested by Pope Francis is very relevant in an age in which, for many reasons,
the theology of creation is somewhat in the shadow, a vision presented most of
all in the second chapter of the Encyclical, which traces back creation, the reflec-
ted light, to the Creator, the originating full light. For many centuries there has
been an ongoing effort to separate nature from the Creator but, as Vatican
Council II states, the creature disappears without its creator. This is also true for
the way we consider creation, today very often transformed into simple nature.
The problem is ecological, Pope Francis is telling us. Crises of a material kind are
never just material: they indicate a loss of direction by humankind not only in a
practical sense, but also in its knowledge. Pope Francis talks about an issue that
today is acknowledged by everyone. On this issue the teachings of the Church
had already made a statement, but not in such a complete and organic way. The
Pope, in this way, places himself on the same ground as the sensitivity of con-

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