Morgan Toal

Senior Integrative Seminar

Dr. Monsour
4 April 2022

While reading the preface, what I think stands out to me the most is when he talks about
protecting the home that we all share. One quote I enjoyed is “The Creator does not abandon us;
he never forsakes his loving plan or repents of having created us” (Francis). We were put on this
Earth to make it better every single day but to never damage it. This makes me feel a little
nervous for what the future holds for this Earth that was created for us, with all of the damage
that has been done. “All of us can cooperate as Instruments of God for the care of creation, each
according to his or own culture, experience, involvements and talents” (Francis). There are so
many people in this world who want to do good for Earth, but then those who continuously cause
damage. This also makes me want to learn more about what we can do to protect our world and
keep it the way God would have wanted it to be. “No witchcraft, no enemy action had silenced
the rebirth of new life in this stricken world. The people had done it themselves” (Carson). This
is a quote from Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. I feel as if her work ties in well with Pope Francis
because they are both focusing a lot on the fact that the people are the ones who are destroying
our Earth.
My section that I was to look at was section five of chapter one. This section which is titled
Global Inequality focuses on what problems need to be solved, and how everyone around the
world can solve them. He ends the section by saying that the United States have more resources
to solve the problems unlike third world countries, but everyone has their own ways to solve.
“We need to strengthen the conviction that we are one single human family. There are no
frontiers or barriers, political or social, behind which we can hide, still less is there room for the
globalization of indifference” (Francis). We as an entire population of the world need to focus on
the things we can control. As a first world country, they can work on providing the resources to
third world countries in order to have newer models and technologies to reduce impact on the
environment. This section also covers how although inequality affects countries, it affects
individuals as well. “... many professionals, opinion makers, communications media and centres
of power, being located in affluent urban areas, are far removed from the poor, with little direct
contact with their problems” (Francis). This quote really opens your eyes and shows you that not
everyone sees the problems that go on in the world, especially when the areas they are living in
might not have these problems. Those “professionals'' don't see what those who are poor are
living in and how their world may be different from theirs. There is “unemployment, abandoned
towns, depletion of natural reserves, deforestation…” (Francis). If we as a whole want to change
global inequality then we need to educate ourselves on what these people are going through and
what they are living in.
Personally, this makes me want to educate myself more on these issues and try to be a part of
the change to fix the world our Creator has put us on. “Our goal is not to amass information or to
satisfy curiosity, but rather to become painfully aware, to dare to turn what is happening to the
world into our own personal suffering and thus to discover what each of us can do about it”
(Francis). This quote is from the section of Our Common Home, and I feel that this quote is
really what I want to do. I want to look deeper into the issues and create a change. Its going to be
hard for just one person to do it but if people really focus on the issue, a change can begin. As I
am focusing on making a change, I chose to watch the video from Greta Thunberg. She made
this video to urge the House to end fossil fuel subsidies. Throughout the video she says that she
knows they won't try to fix this problem, but they will later in the future regret their decision
because her generation will be the ones to focus on change and one day will write about how
they had to take this on themselves and explain to people in the future how the House overlooked
this issue. This speaks to me because at the age of 22 years old I am just now thinking about how
I should start educating myself on these issues and she is only 18 years old. This inspires me to
work even harder to change the world and to get others like Greta to help.

Carson, Rachel. Silent Spring.

https://library.uniteddiversity.coop/More_Books_and_Reports/Silent_Spring-
Rachel_Carson-1962.pdf.

“Laudato Si' (24 May 2015): Francis.” Laudato Si' (24 May 2015) | Francis, 18 June 2015,
https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-
francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html.