Brian Fraga writes:

Five years after Pope Francis wrote Laudato si’ (“On Care for Our Common Home”), Catholic experts in a recent panel discussion pointed out that the earth’s climate is still warming, a pandemic is ravaging the globe and powerful business interests continue to exploit the environment, extracting natural resources at the expense of vulnerable communities in developing countries.

But amid those continuing injustices and tragedies that now include racial unrest across the country, the pope’s 2015 encyclical on integral ecology is inspiring a growing number of Catholics to learn how preventing exploitation of the environment is connected to defending human life and dignity.

“Laudato si’ is an invitation to recognize we need to come together to create an environment in which nature and human beings will thrive,” Cardinal Peter Turkson said during a virtual panel discussion Friday sponsored by the Vatican and Georgetown University’s Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life….

Said Zenner: “We are beset by pandemics which are social, racial, gun-mediated. We are beset by pandemics of economic inequality, and we are beset by pandemics which are viral in nature, really bringing truth to the point that we are all connected.”…

“Our young people are looking for our Church to lead on this,” Misleh said. “If we want our young people to come back to the Church, we have to at least have something along the lines of creation care. This is an issue they care deeply about, and we should tap into their enthusiasm and energy and be a witness to them, and I think that’s really important moving forward.”

You can read his full report here.