The Pope's Encyclical

A recent email exchange on our Cobb Hill list-serve, starting with an email from Coleen:  I am attending a colloquy at Marhareshi University entitled “Deep Sustainability”.  There are about 24 of us from around the country talking for three days about the issues of sustainability being co-opted by corporate America and the issues of denial that exist in all of us about the crisis our planet is in.  We are sharing with each other about what is to be done and how to address it.

One of our participants is a Franciscan sister and she brought with her a copy of the Pope’s recently released Encyclical Letter on “The Care of Our Common Home”.  It is available online in PDF and is 200 pages long.   She is continually reading from it and has now loaned it to me to read tonight. 

Not being Christian, I have to overlook the religious language, though I must say the depth of passion this Pope has for our planet is shining through.   I was in tears two paragraphs in.  I strongly suggest that someone at Cobb Hill print a copy and people begin reading it.  I would like to convene a discussion group when I return in August.  He is a leader for our times and I am so grateful that he is using his pulpit to create “a conversion” of those that have been dallying on the sidelines watching.   I have never believed that the Pope is a Divine selection by God.  I have scoffed at Catholics who buy this story.  Tonight as I read, I am doubting my own doubts.  I am now thinking that there might be such a thing as Divine Intervention. What I'm realizing is that we need to continue to keep up with the New Story that is happening at Cobb Hill in order to claim anything around our values of sustainability.  We need to keep re-inventing ourselves, and getting clearer and clearer about our role in retaining a livable planet for future generations.