LAUDATO SI'. LETTERA ENCICLICA SULLA CURA DELLA CASA COMUNE

"Laudato si', mi' Signore", sang Saint Francis of Assisi.
In this beautiful canticle he reminded us that our common house is also like a sister, with whom we share our existence, and like a beautiful mother who welcomes us in her arms: "Laudato si', mi' Signore, per sora nostra matre Terra, la quale ne sustenta et governata, et produrre diversi fructi con coloriti flori et herba".
This sister protests for the evil we cause her, because of the irresponsible use and abuse of the goods that God has placed in her. We grew up thinking that we were her owners and rulers, authorized to plunder her.
The violence that is in the human heart wounded by sin also manifests itself in the symptoms of illness that we feel in the soil, water, air and living things. For this reason, among the most abandoned and mistreated poor is our oppressed and devastated land, which "groans and suffers the pains of childbirth" (Rom 8:22).
We forget that we ourselves are earth (cf. Gen 2:7).
Our very body is made up of the elements of the planet, its air is the one that gives us breath, and its water vivifies and restores us.