Ten Years of "Laudato Si'": The Inexhaustible Resources of Pope Francis' Encyclical

Ten years have passed since the pleasant surprise of Laudato si' , Pope Francis's encyclical letter, which sounded a gong in favor of "the safeguarding of our common home." This decade has not been one of ecological immobility.

Awareness of the damage being done to living things and the threats to ecosystems has grown significantly around the world. It has prompted reports, summits, assessments, and commitments, but in return, denial and hostility to the necessary transformations have grown exponentially, generating ever-more acute conflict. This is where we find ourselves on this ^10th anniversary, dizzy with the unraveling of measures that were already insufficient, worried that the escalating violence of the world will push ecological issues to later, too late.

The voice of Pope Francis fell silent on April 21, but it continues to vibrate in these pages explicitly addressed "to all people of good will." Today, Laudato si' is both a well-known text and a text that remains to be made known. But it is in the coming years that its true posterity, its "reception," as we say in theological language, will be played out, which will be measured over the long term, by considering what it will have initiated and reinforced as positive transformations. It is therefore essential to make this text known again. And because in ecological as in spiritual matters, nothing is ever acquired, let those who have already taken an interest in it allow themselves to be moved once again by its lively challenge.

In this issue, we have chosen to start afresh, without assuming any prior knowledge of the text, nor any particular theological knowledge, but without depriving ourselves of evaluating the path taken in the Christian Churches thanks to the impetus given by Pope Francis. We hope in this way to offer a reading for all audiences, in a gesture that seeks to bring people together, faithful to the invitation of Pope Francis who insisted: "We need a conversion that unites us all, because the environmental challenge we are experiencing, and its human roots, concern and affect us all."