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Did Pope Francis Condemn Air Conditioning?
The host was referring to paragraph 55 of Laudato Si’. Having travelled to a couple countries in South America, I wondered to myself if he had ever visited the favelas in Brazil, mountainsides covered with “houses” made out of cardboard or pieces of scrap metal where people lived in extreme poverty. Or the dwelling of Colombians who live on less than $47 a month. I guess from their perspective, air conditioning must seem an extravagance that in some way contributes to the inequality from which they can’t escape. The pontiff, a Latin American, sees through their eyes.
On the other hand, Fr. Alexander Lucie-Smith, priest and doctor of moral theology in the UK, commented on this same issue of air-conditioning in Laudato Si’, stating that in our over-crowded cities we all know that heat-waves can be lethal. It is no longer economically feasible or practical to move individuals or governments to summer establishments built to provide greater relief from the heat. Even the pope has a villa for the summer at Castel Gandolfo precisely because the heat in Rome is unbearable (although Pope Francis has chosen not to go there during the August month when everyone escapes the Roman heat). Pope Francis, Fr. Alexander contends, was addressing more specifically over-consumption in one’s own self-interests without reference to the poor.
Air-conditioning hits home for me. I’d rather be cold and put on a sweater than endure a stuffy room in the heat. But I’m not going to let my desire for air-conditioning blind me to the deeper call for conversion which is clearly stated in the excerpt from Laudato Si’ today. Here Pope Francis tries to wake up our hearts to remember that there is more to nature and our fellow dwellers on this earth than what we see with our eyes. My neighbor and all creation burst forth in the great Sanctus: Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty. Heaven and earth are filled with your glory. Can you hear it? Does your heart vibrate to the tune of worship and adoration? It’s all about how we use our imagination and memory. When we consider decisions that affect others, those who are abandoned in our world, or the planet itself, are we seeking to reach God, to give God glory through the person or the world he has created? Or are our thoughts calculating profits, advantage, personal pleasure versus inconvenience or loss.
Pope Francis quotes (the Patriarch) Bartholomew: He asks us to replace consumption with sacrifice, greed with generosity, wastefulness with a spirit of sharing, an asceticism which “entails learning to give, and not simply to give up. It is a way of loving, of moving gradually away from what I want to what God’s world needs. It is liberation from fear, greed, and compulsion.”
That’s something I can really work on (even if I gratefully enjoy the air-conditioning in the chapel).
Blessings,
Sr. Kathryn J. Hermes, FSP
Excerpted from Laudato Si': On Care for Our Common Home
On Care for Our Common Home "presumes
full respect for the human person, but it must also be concerned for
the world around us and “take into account the nature of each being and
of its mutual connection in an ordered system."
... (the
Patriarch) Bartholomew has (also) drawn attention to the ethical and
spiritual roots of environmental problems, which require that we look
for solutions not only in technology but in a change of humanity;
otherwise we would be dealing merely with symptoms. He asks us to
replace consumption with sacrifice, greed with generosity, wastefulness
with a spirit of sharing, an asceticism which “entails learning to give,
and not simply to give up. It is a way of loving, of moving gradually away from what I want to what God’s world needs. It is liberation from fear, greed, and compulsion.”
As Christians, we are also called “to accept the world as a sacrament
of communion, as a way of sharing with God and our neighbors on a global
scale. It is our humble conviction that the divine and the human
meet in the slightest detail in the seamless garment of God’s creation,
in the last speck of dust of our planet.”
St.
Francis, “shows us just how inseparable the bond is between concern
for nature, justice for the poor, commitment to society, and interior
peace.
11. Francis helps us to see that an integral ecology calls
for openness to categories which transcend the language of mathematics
and biology, and take us to the heart of what it is to be human. Just as
happens when we fall in love with someone, whenever he would gaze at
the sun, the moon or the smallest of animals, he burst into song,
drawing all other creatures into his praise. He communed with all
creation, even preaching to the flowers, inviting them “to praise the
Lord, just as if they were endowed with reason.” His response to the
world around him was so much more than intellectual appreciation or
economic calculus, for to him each and every creature was a sister
united to him by bonds of affection. That is why he felt called to care
for all that exists.”
Regarding
St. Francis, St. Bonaventure said… “from a reflection on the primary
source of all things, filled with even more abundant piety, he (St.
Francis), would call creatures, no matter how small, by the name of
‘brother’ or ‘sister.’”
Such a conviction cannot be written off as naive romanticism, for it
affects the choices which determine our behavior. If we approach nature
and the environment without this openness to awe and wonder, if we
no longer speak the language of fraternity and beauty in our
relationship with the world, our attitude will be that of masters,
consumers, ruthless exploiters, unable to set limits on their immediate
needs. By contrast, if we feel intimately united with all that exists,
then sobriety and care will well up spontaneously.
From Laudato Si On Care for Our Common Home Introduction to the encyclical by Pope Francis
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