Pope Francis pulls together Catholic doctrine, scientific consensus and other faith traditions and even echoes famous poets in his sweeping encyclical on the environment and what he says is our moral imperative to save it.

In his formal papal document “Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home,” which was released last May, Francis takes what had previously been a mostly scientific and political issue and adds a moral side. Not only is humanity destroying the earth, he writes, but this destruction is merely a symptom of the larger issues of economics, inequality and human dignity.

“A technological and economic development which does not leave in its wake a better world and an integrally higher quality of life cannot be considered progress,” he writes in the beginning of Laudato Si’.

The document is named after a poem in praise of the earth by St. Francis of Assisi, from whom he took his papal name.

Warning that “the post industrial period may well be remembered as one of the most irresponsible in history,” Francis urges everyone – not just Catholics – to take the issue of climate change and social justice seriously.

“He looks at the climate crisis as a crisis of values, a crisis of faith, a crisis of meaning,” justice and peace studies professor Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer said. Francis attacks this throwaway culture, calling it a “disordered desire to consume more than what is really necessary.”

Francis spends little time framing arguments for climate change, accepting the majority scientific consensus that humans are to blame and moving on to the moral questions of the issue.

“He doesn’t really debate it… He’s just saying this is our reality and we have to have the courage to face it,” Nelson-Pallmeyer said.

In the encyclical, Francis emphasizes the importance of caring for the Earth and fellow human beings as a sign of respect for God’s love.

“God’s love is the fundamental moving force in all created things,” he writes, echoing another famous Italian poet, Dante Alighieri.

“Nature cannot be regarded as something separate from ourselves or as a mere setting in which we live,” he added. “We are part of nature, included in it and thus in constant interaction with it.”

Francis also stresses the culpability of developed countries for current environmental problems, saying that those countries that have most harmed the earth and its people have the most responsibility for reversing the damage. Climate problems disproportionately affect the poor, he writes, because they often live and work close to the land and have no resources to choose otherwise.

Massimo Faggioli, a St. Thomas theology professor who helped translate Francis’ first interview into English, explained the message.

“If you want to understand what is happening to the earth, you should look at what’s happening to the poor on Earth,” he said.

“It is quite challenging and convicting,” said James Ennis, executive director of Catholic Rural Life, a nonprofit that works with agriculture. “It’s an uncomfortable document to read.”

Though Laudato Si’ sharply criticizes those who refuse to see their “self-destructive vices,” the document does not spell out a death sentence for humanity.

“There is reason to hope that humanity at the dawn of the twenty-first century will be remembered for having generously shouldered its grave responsibilities,” Francis writes.

Young people have an especially urgent responsibility to change how the social system harms the environment, according to Francis.

“For college students in particular, there’s this charge to really take leadership in making these changes, because you’re going to be living with them with your children and grandchildren,” Ennis said.

“We are one earth, one system… It’s the idea that there’s no refuge that the rich can build,” Faggioli said.

Francis does not deviate from previous Catholic teaching in the encyclical, said Christopher Thompson, academic dean at the School of Divinity at the St. Paul Seminary. Nor does he deviate from the mission of St. Thomas.

“I think Laudato Si’ is clearly exhorting us to act wisely and pursue the common good,” Thompson said. “Francis is not shy about sending us out with an enthusiasm and a humble confidence to be agents of change, and I’d like to think UST is committed to that.”

Elena Neuzil can be reached at neuz3833@stthomas.edu