On
Thursday, June 18, 2015, Pope Francis released to the world his groundbreaking
encyclical on climate change Laudato Si.
On Sunday, June 21, he prayed before the Shroud of Turin and then standing-up
moved forward and tenderly touched the rim of the Shroud's display frame. Both
the release of Laudato Si on June 18 and his travel to Turin
"Groundbreaking"
understates the importance of Laudato Si.
There have been five mass extinctions of species in the history of earth. One
of them, the Permian, nearly extinguished all life.
Concerns about
climate change have been building for decades. In the first five months of
2014, an avalanche of reports was issued which again highlighted the problems
and the dire consequences of inaction. It may already be too late. The reports
supported the conclusion of Elizabeth Kolbert and Richard Leakey that the sixth
mass extinction was underway and while its furthest extent could not yet be
limned, one species in peril is humanity.
The Pontifical
Academy of Science and Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences (PAS/PASS)
sponsored a workshop on “Sustainable Humanity, Sustainable Nature” in Rome
Crutzen is a
Dutch Chemist who shared the Nobel Prize for his discovering the effects of
ozone-depleting compounds.[ii]
Crutzen also named the current geological era, the “Anthropocene,” a not
necessarily honorable honorific for humanity. Until approximately 200 years
ago, humanity was believed to have little impact on the geologic eras but that
changed:[iii]
“The Anthropocene could be said to have
started in the late eighteenth century, when analyses of air trapped in polar
ice showed the beginning of growing global concentrations of carbon dioxide and
methane.”[iv]
It its May 6, 2014 final conference statement, the scientists noted among other things:
“Human action which is not
respectful of nature becomes a boomerang for human beings that creates
inequality and extends what Pope Francis has termed "the globalization of
indifference" and the "economy of exclusion" (Evangelii
Gaudium), which themselves endanger solidarity with present and future
generations.”[v]
After the
conference, it was rumored that Francis intended to write an encyclical about
climate change and its moral and ethical impact on humanity.[vi] Environmentalists,
scientists, public officials, and academics from a variety of institutions
awaited its publication.
The Yale
Forestry and Divinity schools sponsored a panel discussion on the impact of the
anticipated encyclical. It may be viewed on the web.[vii]
The participants included not just Christians but a woman who works on
environmental issues with Buddhist monks in Nepal Paris
On June
18th, the Vatican
However,
the unfortunate fact is that we are starting down the path that may lead to an
apocalyptic extinction of the humanity. In fact, the early stages of the sixth
mass extinction of life exhibits signs that it may be the last. Forces are
being unleashed that may make the Earth inhospitable to any conscious life and
perhaps any life at all.
On January
17, 2015, the New York Times published an Op-Ed by astrophysicist
Adam Frank who believes that mass extinctions of life are a natural result of
the evolution of conscious life forms that as they develop abuse the
environment as a matter of course. The nearly inevitable result is the
extinction of all life. It's a scenario that he hypothesizes has been repeated
millions of time on planets throughout the Universe.
Listen! Can
you hear the hoof beats? The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are riding. They are just over the horizon.
In Evangelii Gaudium, Francis excoriated the selfishness of those whose claim faith in
blind market forces that they manipulate for their own selfish interests. In Laudato Si, he doesn't completely connect
the dots. Nonetheless, the Apocalypse we face is an Apocalypse of Selfishness.
Perhaps it is
no accident that Francis' trip to Turin
"Well done, good and faithful
servant."
|
|
Mathew
25:21
|
|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Learn about The Coming of the Quantum Christ
No comments:
Post a Comment