By Ciara Shannon
After watching Pope Francis’s funeral, as I’m quite new to the area, I decided to go for a wonder. I soon found myself looking at the towering fells and lush green valley surrounding St. Mary’s Church in Longsleddale.
Feeling a bit awestruck, I thought about the Pope’s remarkable legacy and some of his words came to mind:
“The world is a delicate gift that we have received. Our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us.”
Then another of his reflections popped into my head:
“The earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth.”
There’s nothing quite like a blast of truth to remind us of how badly we are managing the environment.
Stewards of the Earth (and all its mess)
“We are all stewards of the Earth, and we have a responsibility to safeguard and protect it for future generations.”
Pope Francis possessed a remarkable ability to combine compassion, honesty, and that rare quality—humour. He was also an exceptional leader in environmental issues. He consistently urged us to transform our relationship with the Earth and with one another—essentially asking us to stop acting like unruly tenants and start behaving as responsible stewards.
In his groundbreaking ecological encyclical Laudato Si’ (2015), published just ahead of the Paris Agreement, he addressed people of all faiths — and none — reminding everyone that the Earth is “our common home”.
Three simple words that evoke a familiar relationship with the natural world. Three simple words that make the Earth our own and future generations. He stressed that the Earth is not an object for exploitation, but a sacred gift meant to sustain all life. Crucially, he acknowledged the scientific consensus on climate change and how humans are causing climate change.
Another key theme in Laudato Si’ is the link between consumerism, overconsumption, and environmental degradation. He critiqued the “throwaway culture” that produces waste, inequality, and resource exploitation, and urged a shift towards a simpler lifestyle that prioritises the needs of both the planet and the poor.
He also introduced the insightful concept of integral ecology, which connects care for the environment, human dignity, and social justice. He argued that solutions must consider the entire interconnected web of life. An idea that closely aligns with Buddhist ecological thinking, where interdependence and compassion for all living beings are fundamental principles.
Reading beyond the theology, a punchy moral dilemma emerges: do we want to continue creating a mess, or do we wish to turn things around while we still have the chance?
Thank you, Pope Francis, for providing the world with the climate leadership we desperately needed—leadership based on the belief that another path is possible.
On the hottest day imaginable, we covered St Peter’s Square in green leaves and soaring paper kites, calling for climate action. Pope Francis looked on and even called out our name in thanks.
OurVoices worked closely with the Church of England, the Vatican, on other religious and spiritual communities to give a powerful voice to the moral imperative of climate change. Our Voices work reached government leaders and citizens across the world. We did this with GreenFaith and with the Global Catholic Climate Movement – now the Laudato Si Movement.
There is a tangible link to green finance in all of this in that OurVoices was set up, via many conversations with Christiana Figueres (UNFCCC Executive Secretary at the time), by the late, great Tessa Tennant – the godmother of sustainable finance.
Many thanks to Skelsmergh, Selside and Longsleddale for posting this article in their June newsletter.