The Planet's Pope

This commentary from CruxNow is worth reading if you're interested in Catholicism and ecology at the same time: Pope Francis’ environmental encyclical is even more radical than it appears

The author highlights many quotes from the new encyclical by Pope Kick Ass I. Two of them stuck out to me in big ways,

“The creation accounts in the book of Genesis contain, in their own symbolic and narrative language, profound teachings about human existence and its historical reality. They suggest that human life is grounded in three fundamental and closely intertwined relationships: with God, with our neighbor and with the earth itself."

Pachamama (Incan earth goddess, the Earth Mother) is still a big deal here. When I attended the dedication for the new parish center building in Huaro there was a pitcher of Chicha sitting quietly on the table. I'm pretty sure that they used it for the traditional pouring out of a libation to the Pachamama. It would have been wrong not to pour out a libation to her. Andean theology never fogot the importance of the Earth in our religious experience and role as human beings in the world. No one from around here is foolish enough to think the Earth is just a round ball of resources that we can use however we like. This third relationship that the Pope recognizes may be radical in mainstream Catholic theology and surprising to the writers at Crux, but from the mountains of Peru it's just theology at its most basic.

“The universe unfolds in God, who fills it completely. Hence, there is a mystical meaning to be found in a leaf, in a mountain trail, in a dewdrop, in a poor person’s face. The ideal is not only to pass from the exterior to the interior to discover the action of God in the soul, but also to discover God in all things.”

Two things:

One, anyone else thinking of Thich Naht Hanh with that stuff about mystical meaning being found in a leaf or a mountain trail? If you're not, go read Living Buddha, Living Christ by TNH.

Two, "discover God in all things." That passage is from the end of the encyclical. It looks like the first Jesuit pope let St. Ignatius have the last word.