The new apostolic exhortation On the Climate Crisis Laudate Deum is not a document about Christian contemplation. Yet one way to read it is as a consolidation of exactly that. All the themes of Pope Francis’ vision of Christian contemplation, in all its main forms, are represented here, and indeed they serve as the summative framework in which to root our action.

Much of the way that Laudate Deum conveys the central message of Christian contemplation revolves around the structural organization of the document. In contrast to Laudato Si’, the famous second chapter of which (LS 62–100) is entitled “The Gospel of Creation,” Laudate Deum foregoes a thorough Christian, theological grounding until it nears its end (LD 61–69), entitled “Spiritual Motivations” with subsections “In the light of faith” (wording which itself recalls Francis’ first encyclical Lumen Fidei) and “Journeying in communion and commitment” (which it is hard not to associate with the content of the other Francis encyclical Fratelli Tutti).

The opening: the gaze of Jesus

Laudate Deum opens with one short paragraph on Christian teaching. These words should evoke a sense of Christian contemplation in Pope Francis’ terms:

“Praise God for all his creatures”. This was the message that Saint Francis of Assisi proclaimed by his life, his canticles and all his actions. In this way, he accepted the invitation of the biblical Psalms and reflected the sensitivity of Jesus before the creatures of his Father: “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these” (Mt 6:28-29). “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten in God’s sight” (Lk 12:6). How can we not admire this tenderness of Jesus for all the beings that accompany us along the way! (LD 1)

This passage is reminiscent of ones in Laudato Si’ and in Querida Amazonia which talk about “the gaze of Jesus” towards creation (LS 96–100, to be quoted later, LD 65, see below; and QA 57). Pope Francis evokes the “sensitivity” and “tenderness” of Jesus towards creatures. In the Gospels, our Lord calls attention to flowers, fields, and birds—to name a few.

“Sensitivity” implies a sense for the value of something. Appreciated valued is beauty. With Pope Francis, beauty implies a possibility of contemplation, where our “God-given aesthetic and contemplative sense” (QA 56) is turned towards God. So, we are in the realm here of beauty and contemplation. Jesus had them. He had them in the presence of created things. This is “the gaze of Jesus” for created things.

In terms which are indirect, Pope Francis actually starts his new document On the Climate Crisis with Christian contemplation. It is one mode or form of contemplation: presence to the mysteries of Jesus, combined with attention to creatures. It leaves out the other major modes or forms: the creative Trinitarian Persons in themselves, Christ continued in his members. But these aren’t absent from the document. They will come later. What is important is that Laudate Deum starts with a contemplative perspective.

The conclusion: a path of wisdom and beauty

Now, for a contemplative reading, I would suggest jumping all the way from paragraph 1 of Laudate Deum to paragraph 61. The main themes of the concluding section are twofold: to establish a theological vision of our relationship to creation and its Creator, and to direct our spiritual living within that vision.

I think that it is important here for a contemplative perspective to note that Pope Francis proposes a “path of wisdom” (LD 63). Wisdom finds in each thing its value and recognizes the order and relationships that exist as they are. In that sense, it is totally appropriate that Pope Francis urges: “it is not a matter of indifference to us that so many species are disappearing and that the climate crisis endangers the life of many other beings” (LD 63). That is precisely how wisdom would react to the threat of the loss of biodiversity and the interconnected workings of our common home. And although there are various other wisdoms we might define (e.g., philosophical, theological abstract), at least one of them orbits in the solar system of Christian contemplation: the wisdom of the saints and the Holy Spirit. If we have that wisdom, we will react as Pope Francis says to the environmental crisis.

Not only is the way the Holy Father exhorts us to one of wisdom; it is also a path of beauty. This is a beauty recognized:

Jesus “was able to invite others to be attentive to the beauty that there is in the world because he himself was in constant touch with nature, lending it an attraction full of fondness and wonder. As he made his way throughout the land, he often stopped to contemplate the beauty sown by his Father, and invited his disciples to perceive a divine message in things” [LS 97]. (LD 64)

It is also a beauty fought for and worked for:

I ask everyone to accompany this pilgrimage of reconciliation with the world that is our home and to help make it more beautiful, because that commitment has to do with our personal dignity and highest values. (LD 69)

In other words, just as wisdom recognizes and reacts in a particular way, so does a regard for beauty recognize and react in a particular way. The path proposed by the Holy Father in response to the situation discerned by scientists and other specialists is a path of wisdom and beauty. That, to be sure, is a path in which Christian contemplation has a part!

The conclusion: condensed citation, consolidation

Next, I would like to consider a remarkably dense passage. Right after noting that Jesus gave his attention to the beauty of the created world, Pope Francis goes on:

Hence, “the creatures of this world no longer appear to us under merely natural guise, because the risen One is mysteriously holding them to himself and directing them towards fullness as their end. The very flowers of the field and the birds which his human eyes contemplated and admired are now imbued with his radiant presence” [LS 100]. If “the universe unfolds in God, who fills it completely… there is a mystical meaning to be found in a leaf, in a mountain trail, in a dewdrop, in a poor person’s face” [LS 233]. The world sings of an infinite Love: how can we fail to care for it? (LD 65)

What interests me here is both content and structure/form. In this short paragraph, we actually get all three main types of Christian contemplation. There is contemplation of the mysteries of Jesus, apparent to us in the gaze our Lord bore for creation now being part of everything that creation becomes for us today. There is also contemplation of the Creator himself, insofar as the Holy Father mentions the unfolding of the universe in God, present everywhere. Finally, there is contemplation of Christ in others, mentioned as appearing “in a poor person’s face.”

This all happens in one paragraph of Laudate Deum. This was not the case in the source material. This passage (LD 64–65) draws from three in Laudato Si’ (LS 97, 100, 233). In the 2015 encyclical letter, there is considerable imbalance between the time devoted to each type of Christian contemplation. In the 2023 apostolic exhortation, there is a much greater balance in giving them all their due, even while condensing things. This is probably the fruit of many years of catechesis, allowing Pope Francis to zero in on the essential.

The three main kinds of Christian contemplation are here consolidated as what contemplation, for a Christian, actually is. The teaching is condensed. Mutual interconnection with contemplation of the creation of God is stressed.

That this contemplation of created things should be one made in gratitude (a characteristic which makes it a work of mercy) and piety is also not forgotten. Our need to be grateful is represented in this passage:

This is not a product of our own will; its origin lies elsewhere, in the depths of our being, since “God has joined us so closely to the world around us that we can feel the desertification of the soil almost as a physical ailment, and the extinction of a species as a painful disfigurement” [Evangelii Gaudium 215]. (LD 68)

Creation has an origin elsewhere. If we are “situated” in it (LD 67) such that everywhere is a “contact zone” with it (LD 66), that situatedness is a gift. Response to a gift is one of gratitude.

Meanwhile our need for piety is represented here:

To recognize, in other words, that human life is incomprehensible and unsustainable without other creatures. For “as part of the universe… all of us are linked by unseen bonds and together form a kind of universal family, a sublime communion which fills us with a sacred, affectionate and humble respect” [LS 89]. (LD 67)

Piety regards God as Father, and if our fellow creatures are of the same origin, they are in some sense our sisters and brothers.

Contemplation of God, the mystery of Jesus, and Christ in our neighbour, through the locus of grateful contemplation of the family of creatures, is all in Laudate Deum. It is not directly spoken of. If you search for “contemplation” or its analogates, you won’t find anything. But it’s there.

The middle

What, then, is the middle of Laudate Deum (i.e., LD 2–60) in a contemplative reading? It’s the stuff that says, “This is the state of affairs. This is how it is. So what says your contemplative sense of wisdom and beauty? And what says your gut that needs to react in tune with your regard for wisdom and beauty?”

The middle is a long read. But it is not especially hard. There are far more difficult Church documents out there. Much of the scientific jargon that was in Laudato Si’ (e.g., complexity science terminology) is toned down. A more practical tone dominates.

In particular, there is quite a bit of focus on those who “have chosen to deride the facts” and their arguments (LD 6). It’s kind of like apologetics. But not apologetics regarding explicit content of the faith, rather apologetics in favour of scientific knowledge that assists the Church in its witness. It’s, I think, like the following. Imagine there was a large swathe of Catholics who repeatedly and vigorously denied that an embryo is biologically, genetically human, that a zygote is biologically, genetically human. I don’t mean just fringe groups with no significant footholds, but large swathes, like we have with climate change denial, downplaying, and skepticism. Such a hypothetical mass challenge raised regarding the scientific facts about human reproduction and DNA would harm dialogue about life issues like abortion. The discussion is hard enough when everyone already accepts the biological reality of human DNA. It would be virtually impossible without it. If the Pope were to step in and do apologetics regarding these facts, that would be totally warranted. There would be a need for this correction. It is a necessary step for securing evangelical witness regarding matters beyond science. So, when an analogous state of affairs actually has materialized regarding climate change, Pope Francis took the initiative to enshrine scientific “apologetics” in the Magisterium. He makes it clear that these are the facts regarding this one issue that will inform our contemplation, then our action.

To be sure, this is where a lot of the novelty lies. We have here a document focused on the problem of the climate crisis (not, as in Laudato Si’, focused on the climate as well as all kinds of related phenomena like other kinds of pollution, biodiversity, and social impacts). It takes for granted the interconnectedness of the issues (LD 19). But its focus is on one area. And that is novel in the social teaching of the Church on our common home. The manifestation in terms of the needed apologetics is (more or less) new. The singular focus itself is new.

But what is an apostolic exhortation anyway? It’s a document to exhort—to encourage, to urge. The contemplation-related parts at the beginning and the end are well established by this point. They’re condensed and consolidated, and it’s nice to have that done. I certainly appreciate seeing Christian contemplation articulated as to its main themes, whenever and wherever that happens, whether explicitly or implicitly. Where we need encouragement and urging right now is, however, focused on one particular issue, because if the state of affairs is as the Holy Father, following the best science that we have, has explained, our sense of wisdom and beauty—our Christian contemplation—is going to exert certain demands on us as individuals and on the human species as a whole. It’s time to act on that contemplative experience.