Let’s prepare, not speculate

“No one should be having any opinions on the thing yet as it hasn't even been published! … [C]an people just wait until it's out?!?!?!?!?!?!?”

That comment, posted on the Catholic Ecology Facebook page last week, about sums up the feelings of many (myself included) who are a little worn out by the juggernaut of speculation over the upcoming encyclical on the environment. Not helping is that many reports and commentary are repetitive and—by accident or design—just plain wrong.

This is becoming an issue.

More than one well-informed eco-theologian I’ve spoken with has noted off-the-record concerns—and the concerns of others—that some in the media and elsewhere are crossing the line of explaining the authentic Catholic view of ecology. They seem to be speaking for the Church in ways that hijack its message in favor of this or that worldly ideology. (As a few academics put it, unless you’re one of the high-level clerics or theologians that assisted with the document’s drafting, you have no idea exactly what it will say—or how it will say it. And those people are not talking.)

Not long ago there wasn’t much of an audience for the Catholic perspective of ecology. And so my habit of blogging about the subject often got odd looks and little attention.

Now my blog's traffic is climbing and it seems everyone has something to say about Pope Francis and his encyclical. This can be a good thing. But now, almost everything that could be said—good, bad, and incorrect—has been said. Several times. Or perhaps several hundred.

(How often do we hear in the media the term “climate change encyclical” to describe what will certainly not be an encyclical devoted to that topic?)

Time for a rest

Some prayerful weeks of preparation would be helpful now, because this encyclical will be remarkably important—more so I think than any of us can really envision. It will have a profound impact on both the short- and long-term life of the Church. Not to mention the good of the world. (Which is another way of saying for the salvation of a soul or two for those who may return to or enter the Church as a result of what they hear.)

It will also prompt lots of action on personal and communal levels.

Certainly the not-yet-published encyclical has developed a gravitational force that’s already changing for the better the status quo in favor of environmental protection—which is the best argument possible for continuing to talk about it.

And so there will be some big news over the next days and weeks (which you can read about here). And there is lots of good work happening (quietly) in preparation of the encyclical’s release by conferences of bishops, religious orders, academics, and environmental groups—Catholic, inter-faith, and secular. This is all meant to queue up resources to help the average person, cleric, and teacher receive, ponder, and share the actual contents of the eco-encyclical—after it is released, that is—and do so mindful of the wider context of Church teachings on ecological and human realities.

That’s why if asked about the encyclical, I will talk about it—but my goal will be to help explain why the Church is concerned with ecology and what she teaches.

But not everyone is limiting their comments to the expository.

When politics enters in

Many of the Catholic ecologists and theologians I’ve spoken with are troubled and sometimes a little angry with the energy expended by so many that seek to advance worldly political and ideological extremes—the “cottage industry,” as some call it, that seeks to sway the narrative of what the encyclical is all about.

Operatives of the Left especially are out front shaping expectations. (Of course the terms “Left” and “Right” are simplistic. I use them, however, as they serve as conventions that are generally understood to stand for more complex realities.)

This barrage by many on the Left is working. Just consider the news stories and commentaries that define Pope Francis’s encyclical not as a document for pastorally dealing with global ecological and human life issues but as an all-out papal war with the West and its economic engines.

Understandably, in the West this has many on the Right up in arms—especially those who may not wish to acknowledge the negatives that can and have come from unbridled corporate activities. And it doesn't help that this group is also speculating about what the encyclical will say. (Then there are those on the Right who support environmental protection, but that’s for another post.)

And so that glow you see in the night sky is the internet burning with the fire of trillions of photons bouncing off satellites and illuminating computer monitors and iPads everywhere—all with news of what the encyclical “will” say, “how” it will say it, and why we had better make this or that policy change now, even if only a handful of people on the globe actually know what it says—word for word and true thought for true thought.

Onward and upward

As that Facebook comment noted, for the rest of us, “no one should be having any opinions on the thing yet as it hasn't even been published!”

When the encyclical is released, let it speak for itself within the context of what we know about this Successor of Peter, his predecessors, the teachings of Jesus Christ, the Revelation of God, and the resulting tradition of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church.

But until it’s in our hands and on our screens, perhaps we can spend less time speculating and more time working to love God, neighbor, and creation in the actual corners of the world in which God has placed us—that is, among the places and people we have before us in the here and now.