Much has already been written about the environmental legacy of Pope Francis.
However, Justin Catanoso, who has long reported on the pontiff’s activism, does a commendable job capturing the Pope’s greenery in a recent write-up for Mongabay.
Reflecting on the pontiff’s passing on April 21st at age 88, Catanoso notes that the world lost not just a spiritual leader but a voice for nature in the global moral arena.
Francis was not a participant in high-level biodiversity summits, nor did he negotiate emissions targets. Yet his 2015 encyclical ‘Laudato Si’ became one of the most influential environmental texts of the 21st century.
“Each year sees the disappearance of thousands of plant and animal species… because they have been lost forever,” he wrote. “We have no such right.”
That combination of ecological accuracy and spiritual clarity reverberated far beyond the Catholic Church, influencing the tone of the Paris Agreement and animating grassroots climate movements worldwide.
He was unambiguous in his diagnosis: capitalism, consumerism, and political cowardice were driving planetary decline.
“The earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth,” he declared bluntly, unsettling business elites and some within his own Church.
His 2023 follow-up, ‘Laudate Deum’, revealed a pope losing patience with global summits and the slow erosion of promises.
“The world in which we live is collapsing,” he warned.
While many spiritual leaders speak in generalities, Francis did not shy from specifics. He singled out the Amazon and its Indigenous peoples for urgent attention.
“When the Indigenous peoples remain on their land, they themselves care for it best,” he noted in ‘Querida Amazonia’. His words helped catalyze efforts like the Interfaith Rainforest Initiative, extending moral suasion into policy and activism in Brazil, Colombia, and beyond.
His critics accused him of romanticism, naiveté, even betrayal of Catholic tradition. Yet he persisted, with moral clarity.
“There is a mystical meaning to be found in a leaf, in a mountain trail, in a dewdrop,” he once wrote.
In a time when few global leaders put moral weight behind ecological truths, Francis did. His voice will be missed. But his words remain.
