“He told me he was working on writing a new encyclical, it’s a re-edition of Laudato si’ and it will be published on October 4,” Katalyn Novák, President of Hungary, told the Roman daily Il Messaggero after meeting Pope Francis on August 25, 2023. On August 21, the Pontiff had referred to the drafting of “a second part” of the 2015 encyclical on integral ecology.
October 4 is the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, author of the Canticle of Creation, which opens the encyclical Laudato si’ and thus gives it its title.
In 2020, it was on this same date that the Pontiff – who chose to bear the name of the Umbrian saint – chose to sign his third encyclical – Fratelli Tutti – at the Poverello’s tomb in Assisi.
According to the Hungarian president, the Pope confided in her that the encyclical needed to be “updated” because “a lot of things have changed a bit” since 2015.
The new text should address additional issues to those already addressed in Laudato si’, the head of state asserted, although she acknowledged that she had not gone into more detail with the Pontiff.
Laudato si’
Tom Hoopes noted in this article that there is an interweaving of Catholic principles and concern for the environment. He says, “According to Pope Francis, the great enemy of the environment is in our hearts.”
“The great danger in today’s world, pervaded as it is by consumerism is the desolation and anguish born of a complacent yet covetous heart, the feverish pursuit of frivolous pleasures, and a blunted conscience,” he wrote.
Environmental degradation comes from hearts sick from greed and selfishness, and only God can fix those.
