Considerazioni sull'enciclica di Papa Francesco "Laudato si'"

Remarks on the encyclical by Pope Francis Laudato si’ (“Praise be to you”). The encyclical Laudato si’ by
Pope Francis in June 2015 is undoubtedly an important document. The Roman Catholic Pontiff exhorts “all
persons of good will” to take care of our «common house». He declares that the narrow-minded, arrogant
anthropocentric conception of nature, for which many Christians have thought to find justification in the
Scriptures, is wrong. He proposes a «comprehensive ecology», embracing both the relationship between man
and nature and the relationship between peoples and generations. He condemns the «dominant technocratic
paradigm», the «consumer culture», the «logic of finance», the «magical conception of the market»,
«utilitarian pragmatism» and «logic lying beneath present-day culture». He states that the cry coming from
the South of the world merges with the cry of the Earth violated and exploited. «Care» and «custody» must
be correlated with «justice». The encyclical text deals with many topics and raises many questions, but also
several doubts. The latter concern the image of nature, which is implicit in the encyclical, and there is some
vagueness in many of the practical suggestions resulting from it.
Parole chiave: Papa Francesco, ecologia, enciclica, degrado ambientale, etica
Key words: Pope Francis, ecology, encyclical, deterioration of the environment, ethics