Integral Ecology is at the heart of Pope Francis’s encyclical letter Laudato Si’: On Care for our Common Home, published in 2015. Throughout Laudato Si’, Pope Francis describes the various crises of our time as a single global crisis, “the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor,” with environmental, economic, social, cultural, and spiritual elements. Pope Francis draws on the life and model of St. Francis of Assisi to introduce the universal community we share with all people and all creation.
In a recent document titled Integral Ecology in the Life of the Family from the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and the Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life, they describe integral ecology in the following way:
Integral ecology – the concept at the heart of Laudato Si’ – is a paradigm for analysis, discernment and commitment. Within integral ecology, Laudato Si' encompasses numerous specific ecologies: environmental, economic, social, cultural, societal institutions, daily life, and overall human ecology. This list entails interconnectedness and consistency. When we better appreciate the interconnectedness of our natural world, we will better understand the interdependence of human and natural environments.
The response to the global crisis through integral ecology and the orientation of action described by Pope Francis is one where, “Strategies for a solution demand an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature .” Pope Francis then indicates that the capability to respond to these crises requires an ecological conversion which is both individual and communal. This conversion requires a new way of living and interacting in and with the world of humans and the natural world. In the model of Catholic Social Teaching, “See, Judge, Act,” fits the model for integral ecology, where Pope Francis calls us to see in a particular way the interconnectedness of all things.