Laudato si' (Praised be) for Pope Francis' wonderful appeal for ecological justice (The Tablet, 26 June) and an end to our common indifference to the poor, abandoned and maltreated, among them the earth herself.
The clarion call for change pulls few punches as to the critical state of our biosphere and humankind itself, arguing from the strands of Catholic theology and social teaching.
The rhetoric of sexual differentiation which has been notable among the recent concerns of many churchmen is fortunately not prominent in Laudato si' - we need to be, and are, one humanity in the effort for earth's future.
And yet perhaps this is one theme on which to listen intently to women's voices is essential - one thinks of Dorothy Stang, Wangari Maathai or Vandana Shiva and so many other women in the forefront of this struggle. Bishops urgently need to respond in practice to Pope Francis' recognition that Catholic women have little presence in the Church. How sad also that, alone among the translations of Laudato Si', the English version fails to bring out the reference to women's labour in paragraph 2, using the obscure word "travail" while "creation cries out in one great act of giving birth" (Romans 8).
Cathy Wattebot, Coventry
Loading ...
