In today’s encyclical letter LAUDATO SI’, “On Care for our Common Home, I was pleased to see Pope Francis link concerns for climate change with poverty, inequality and the ‘common good.’ Pope Francis says: “The same mindset which stands in the way of making radical decisions to reverse the trend of global warming also stands in the way of achieving the goal of eliminating poverty.” (p. 128).

I know Catholics, as I am a Catholic, that are ready to take action on climate change but stay silent on the growing poverty in our city, especially amidst black and brown persons. Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement quotes Peter Maurin, other co-founder, as saying we need to create the “kind of society where it is easier for man to be good.” The environments we have created in Milwaukee for poor, in North Central Milwaukee and South Central Milwaukee are neighborhoods with extreme poverty, racially segregation, high unemployment and poor schools. This is not the kind of environment where it is easier to be good. Also these are neighborhoods most affected by the climate change the Pope was talking about, where there is a neglect of the ‘common good’ and poor suffer from the greedy or do-gooders.

The Pope is right to connect Climate Change with Inequality: “Only when world leaders heed the Pope’s moral leadership on these two defining issues, inequality and climate change, will our societies become safer, more prosperous and more equal.” —Winnie Byanyima, Oxfam International

Comments

Please send any comments on this post to . Let us know which day’s post your comments pertain to. If the comments are appropriate we will post them here for you.