Archbishops term papal encyclical on environment moral guidance, not policy

Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington, D.C., told a June 17 Newsmaker audience that Pope Francis' newly released encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si, is not a set of "policy proposals."

Francis has urged people to “start a conversation” on the issue of environmental stewardship with a view toward protecting the earth and leaving a good legacy for the upcoming generation, Wuerl said.

This call for “good faith argument” has generated reactions from both within and outside the faith community, said Wuerl. Even though the encyclical is an “urgent challenge to protect our common home,” it is more moral than policy guidance, and an invitation to look at the issues presented together, he explained.

According to Wuerl, the church recognizes that science is a “domain of its own,” and the encyclical contains “evident” data which prevents it from being dismissed as merely “abstract” data.

With the encyclical, Francis examines the dignity of the human person, a moral imperative to protect the natural order of the world and recognition that “legitimate” economic progress is part of community and human development, Wuerl said. The pope is not providing a blueprint, but a framework, while also simply “reading the signs of the times,” he said.

Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz, President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, joined Cardinal Wuerl at the event. He said that the church is in the environmental issue for the long haul and the encyclical is a challenge to dialogue within a moral time frame.