Extract from the IMBISA Laudato Sì Manual
“It is my hope that this Encyclical Letter, which is now added to the body of the Church’s social teaching, can help us to acknowledge the appeal, immensity and urgency of the challenge we face.” LS 15)
Pope Francis says, we need a new approach to the model of development, because what we need is, in his terms, integral and sustainable human development. The notion of integral human development is an old and core term of Catholic Social Teaching.
The Pope has said right at the beginning, this is a message and an urgent appeal to all of humanity. The Church has so much to teach in magnificent Catholic Social Teachings about how we can behave for the common good, because of course the Church has been thinking, propounding, examining, self-examining, reflecting on these themes for hundreds and indeed, for hundreds of years, for two millennia. And with the magnificent words of Jesus in the Beatitudes, telling about the common good. But what the Pope is saying is that this is beyond the theology of the Church, this is for the common home of all of humanity.
(ANTHONY ANNETT – Laudato Sì, SDG Academy MOOC)