Laudato si' From Francis of Assisi to Pope Francis

Abstract

On june 18, 2015, pope Francis released an ecological encyclical entitled Laudato si’, “On Care for Our Common Home”, the first encyclical prepared entirely at Francis’s initiative and directed to everyone, regardless of religion. Pope Francis’ language reminds to the tone of St. Francis of Assisi’s “Canticle of the Creatures”, which is the source of the encyclical’s title. In this article, we studied the relationship between the fraternity feeling of St. Francis and the integral ecology concept of pope Francis, that clearly comprises the environmental, economic and social ecology, as well as the ecology of daily life and the ethical aspects of the intergenerational justice. We also comment the pope’ speechs to the United Nations and the USA Congress, proclaiming the existence of a right of the environment, as well as the appeal to COP-21 negotiating parties in Paris calling on them to work toward the approval of a fair, legally binding and truly transformational climate agreement.