In claiming for Pope Francis an inauguration of "a new era in the Catholic Church's approach to the natural world", Carmody Grey (The Tablet, 4 July) shows a lamentable lack of understanding of Catholic tradition.
In contrast to the "new philosophy" heralded by Francis Bacon in England and Rene Descartes in France, it has been - to be precise - the Franciscan tradition going back to St Bonaventure's Itinerarium Mentis (not to mention St Francis himself) and the Ignatian tradition going back to the Spiritual Exercises to emphasise that, whereas man alone is created "to the image and likeness of God", other creatures serve to reflect the goodness and love of God as his gifts to man, not for domination but for a reasonable dominion, not for unlimited exploitation but for admiring exploration.
As for St Bonaventure, look at the way he is extensively quoted by Pope Francis, and as for St Ignatius (who is oddly unmentioned in the encyclical) look at the famous words of the Jesuit poet (one of the Pope's favorite authors) Gerard Manley Hopkins, "Earth, sweet Earth, sweet landscape" ("Ribblesdale") - which words he himself seems to derive from those put by Shakespeare into the mouth of his poet-king Richard II, "Dear Earth, I do salute thee with my hand" (iii.2) If further proof of this Catholic tradition is required, let me refer to the July issue of La Civilta Cattolica, in which I have an article on this very subject.
Fr Peter Milward SJ, Sophia University, Tokyo
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