Pope Francis Catholic Heritage

In Pope Francis’s encyclical, Laudato Si, he expresses how, “We urgently need a humanism capable of bringing together the different fields of knowledge, including economics, in the service of a more integral and integrating vision,” (141). To put this phrase into context, Pope Francis was noting the intersectionality of the word crises like climate change and poverty. Instead of allowing just the environmentalist to tackle environmental issues, he suggests real change needs to be orientated in all of God’s people because our global issues are insurmountable alone. Not only is Pope Francis’s call crucial knowledge for the progression of our current society, but it also correlates to a few themes of the Catholic Heritage. To begin, Pope Francis’s

The Catholic Heritage is much more than just doctrine and what happens during church services. Catholic Social Teaching is a significant reflection for how the Church has found a role in the contemporary world. The principles of the teaching are unique but essential to the heritage. Writer Margaret M. McGuinness, states, “The first and primary principle of CST focuses on the dignity of the human person. This foundational idea is based on the premise that all men and women, because they are created in the image and likeness of God, possess an inherent dignity,” (Mcguinness 198). Because human dignity is at the root of CST, learning and promoting this teaching. Mcguiness explains how CST needs to be discipline for all Catholic colleges. Even if the a student’s major is far from theology like biology or math, learning some capacity on CST is important because of it’s founding principles on human dignity. Further in her essay, Mcguiness writes, “Students enrolled in professional degree programs should be able to focus on principles on CST related to their field of study. Education majors should certainly be familiar with issues of tuition vouchers and the closing of inner-city parish schools, while nursing students can be exposed to the Catholic positon on reproductive technologies and physician-assisted suicide,” (Mcguinness 201). Mcguiness’s point of the importance of learning CST because of it’s human dignity foundation has major correlations to Pope Francis’s quote. He goes as far to say people with backgrounds in “economics” need to have a humanism approach. When all of God’s creation can be centered on human dignity for all, we can view the world’s greatest needs from a more integral