The profound words of Leo XIV on nature, on the duty to respect it without falling into ideological worship. A radical and revolutionary balance in a polarized world.

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The radical revolution of balance.

This is the characteristic we are most appreciating in Pope Leo, able to step into a world polarized on everything, taking both sides by the hand and trying to make a synthesis, valuing the best aspects.

“Test everything and hold on to what is good”, taught St. Paul. And Pope Prevost is doing it wonderfully.

 

The necessary proclamation of Christ in the Amazon

Yesterday Leo XIV sent a telegram to the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon, gathered from August 17 to 20 in Bogotá (Colombia).

In our “Breaking News“ on social media, we immediately highlighted the first part of his text, in which without any embarrassed and ambiguous religious-multicultural-syncretistic relativism he pointed out the missionary focus to the Amazonian bishops:

«It is necessary that Jesus Christ, in whom all things are recapitulated (cf. eph 1,10), be announced with clarity and immense charity among the inhabitants of the Amazon, so that we may strive to give them fresh and pure the bread of the Good news and the heavenly food of the eucharist, the only means to truly be the people of God and the body of Christ».

The necessary of evangelization, far from any imposition, but courageously proposed with gentleness, charity and clarity.

 

Leo XIV on nature: love it, do not worship it

Now, however, let us turn to the second part of Leo’s telegram, shorter but just as firm.

It speaks of nature, of respect for the environment and of the duty to take care of it.

The Pope has already faced criticism of being an «environmentalist ideologue» from certain Catholic circles for having included antiphons and biblical readings concerning respect for creation within a specific liturgical formulary (the so-called “Ecologist Mass”).

But precisely in yesterday’s telegram, Leo XIV brings out the proverbial Catholic balance, able to take on the duties of respecting creation without falling into environmentalist-ecologist ideology.

Here are his words to the bishops of the Amazon:

«No less evident is the right and duty to care for the “home” that God the Father has entrusted to us as diligent stewards, so that no one irresponsibly destroys the natural goods that speak of the goodness and beauty of the Creator nor, much less, subjects oneself to them as a slave or worshiper of nature, since things have been given to us in order to attain our end of praising God and thus obtaining the salvation of our souls».

Concepts that, albeit less clearly or directly, have also been part of Francis’ teaching.

For example, when in Laudato si’ he recalled that «for Christians, all the creatures of the material universe find their true meaning in the incarnate Word, for the Son of God has incorporated in his person part of the material world, planting in it a seed of definitive transformation».

And, quoting St. John of the Cross, Pope Bergoglio taught that respect for creation is due «not because the finite things of this world are really divine, but because the mystic experiences the intimate connection between God and all beings, and thus feels that “all things are God”».

 

The wisdom of Catholic balance

Here lies all the radical wisdom of Catholic balance.

Not the disregard for nature, as some technocratic ideologies do that reduce creation to an object of exploitation, nor its divinization, as happens in new “spiritual” syncretisms that confuse the gift with the Giver.

Creation is a sign, not an end; it is a gift, not an idol. Taking care of it, as the Church teaches us, means recognizing its value without forgetting that it points to Another, the Creator who entrusted it to man.

Thus Pope Leo shows that he can combine Christological proclamation and ecological responsibility, evangelizing mission and care for creation, offering the Church and the world a precious compass in a historical era marked by polarization and confusion.