Laudato Si’ and the Progressive Movement

Some people were surprised by Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’.  However, the Catholic Church is the most obvious entity in European history to take up the cause of the environment.  The progressive movement shares Pope Francis’s concern. We should make ourselves familiar with this document, discuss it, and build on it.

The Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution

Our environmental problems are the result of 200 years of industrialization.  The Enlightenment enabled the industrial revolution with its philosophical and technological developments.  This movement was not only independent of the Catholic Church, it opposed the authority of the Church.  Therefore, the Church is in a unique position to  publish a document like Laudato Si’.

The Enlightenment considered progress and improvement of the human condition more important than traditional institutions. People came to believe that these institutions could be discarded if necessary.  The French Revolution was one result of this belief, while the Industrial Revolution was the result of the Enlightenment’s scientific advances.

Political Classes and the Environment

The liberal middle class benefited from the Industrial Revolution, and the political left survived it. Former farmers became factory workers for liberal industrialists. They didn’t have the luxury of worrying about the environment.

The other political faction, the conservatives, have never focused on the environment.

It’s true that the Catholic Church has formed coalitions with conservative factions, but the Church apparently has an identity that is separate from political conservatism.  With the publication of Laudato Si’, it seems the Church has more in common with the progressive movement than it does with modern conservatism.

It’s too easy to forget that the liberals and the business class are also political entities. Their determination to stay in control requires them to ignore or downplay the environmental crisis.

Who are the 21st Century Progressives?

Laudato Si’ and the Progressive Movement have much in common. Environmental concerns and an interest in Agricultural Policy and Food Security has shaped the progressive movement in the 21st century.

The following is taken from pages 6 and 7 of Laudato Si’.

In 1963, Pope John XXIII addressed the nuclear threat in Pacem in Terris;

Eight years later, in 1971, Pope Paul VI wrote about his ecological concerns and “the urgent need for a radical change in the conduct of humanity;”

In 2001, John Paul II called for a “global ecological conversion;”

In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI proposed “eliminating the structural causes of the dysfunctions of the world economy, and correcting models of growth which have proved incapable of ensuring respect for the environment.”

…’the book of nature is one and indivisible,’ and includes the environment, life, sexuality, the family, social relations, and so forth.  It follows that ‘the deterioration of nature is closely connected to the culture which shaped human coexistence.’ ((On Care for Our common Home – Laudato Si’, Pope Francis, pp. 6-7))

For a leftist take on environmentalism see Alyssa Battistoni’s Review of Naomi Klein’s Book