A Reading of Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’ and Laudate Deum from the Perspective of Theology of the People

Abstract

Pope Francis’ first encyclical, Laudato Si’, set the tone of much of his reflection about the environment. The earth is not considered from a naturalistic scientific perspective, but as the “common home”, where caring for the planet means caring for each other. Eight years later, the Pope issued an exhortation, Laudate Deum in which he again called for mutual care and concern for the environment. This article aims to read and analyze both texts in their expression of Theology of the People’s principles, developed in Argentina in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Exploration, hermeneutic interpretation and an analysis of Pope Francis’ way of textually connecting people and the environment in Laudato Si’ and Laudate Deum will show how he was a mystic in the tradition of Theology of the People, who emphasized in his ecological messages people’s faith and their relation with the earth.