The Integral Ecology of Laudato si’ as a New Framework for Social Sustainability Values

Abstract

The Encyclical Letter Laudato si’ On Care for Our Common Home gathers to dialogue all people, organizations and institutions that share the same concern — the care for our common home. Since Pope Francis promulgated Laudato si’ in 2015, many people have become better informed about Catholic social teaching which advocates concern for God’s creation, the environment included. In Laudato si’ Pope Francis describes what is happening to our common home, then considers a theological and sociological approach to today’s crisis — the responsibility of humanity — and examines the concept of “integral ecology” as a new social sustainability values framework. In this paper integral ecology is conceptually inseparable from integral society. The great contribution by environmental sociology is emphasized since the subject of analysis thereof are the social causes and effects of environmental change. In the encyclical Laudato si’ Pope Francis promotes the principle of the “common good” on three levels — individual, social, and global — in which we find all elements of the Church’s social doctrine, such as solidarity and subsidiarity, the common good, justice, participation and “commitment” to the poor.