V.S. Catholics weigh pope’s encyclical

Pope Francis’s recent encyclical, Laudato si’, calls for recognition of human activity’s negative impact on the environment and fundamental changes in our thinking and behavior to correct it, and local Catholic leaders say that should be no surprise.

“His message is pretty simple,” said James O’Hara, a deacon at Holy Name of Mary parish in Valley Stream. “It’s profound, but he’s basically brought us back to first principles.”

Principles like stewardship of the environment, concern for and action on behalf of the poor and vulnerable, and resisting the tendency to blindly trust the “idols of our time” like technology, O’Hara said, are charges from the pope to challenge the pitfalls of the systems we’ve built around us — and that’s coming from a tech-savvy pope, he noted.

“He’s worried about not subjecting technology to human values,” said O’Hara, who has long had an interest in the papacy. At 14 he served as an usher at Yankee Stadium during Pope Paul VI’s visit there in 1965, and has studied each pontiff since. He expects Laudato si’, which translates to “Praise Be to You,” to spur a continued conversation within and outside Catholicism. He noted the pope’s upcoming visit to Congress in September, in the midst of political season. “The pope is influencing dialogue,” he said, citing President Obama’s use of the term “the least among us,” which is used in the church.

O’Hara said he expects controversy as the conversation continues. “We may hear things that we don’t want to hear,” he said. “We may hear things that are uncomfortable for us to hear.”

Over the last 50 years, O’Hara said, the papal message has been a consistent one, advocating for social justice.

“We have to take a look at these things as Catholics,” said The Rev. Henry Reid, also of Holy Name of Mary. He cautioned against interpreting the encyclical as a triumph of right- or left-wing ideology. “If people understand it as a weapon, they have missed it,” Reid said. “Pope Francis covers many issues, and he’s challenging us to come around to a new way of thinking.”