AIA is delighted with Pope Francis’ New Encyclical, Laudato Si’

Laudato Si’, Pope Francis’ new Encyclical on the Environment, is warmly welcomed by the Animal Interfaith Alliance.  It represents a major paradigm shift in the Catholic Church’s attitude towards the Creation, nature and particularly to the other animals we share this planet with.  Pope Francis attacks man’s ‘despotic anthropocentrism’ and highlights the interrelatedness and interconnectedness of all life.  He has moved the Catholic Church away from the anthropocentric theology of St Thomas Aquinas, which views nature and other animals as being made solely for man’s use, and he reinstates the teachings of St Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals from whom he has taken his name, on the mystical unity man shares with nature.