Ecology and the Eucharist: Pope Francis’s Liturgical Theology of Caring for Our Common Home

Abstract

Ten years into his papacy, this article explores Pope Francis’s concern for ecology and the environment in relation to the church's liturgy and sacraments, especially the eucharist. How Christians pray liturgically, especially at the eucharist, should inform Christian ethics, including our care for our common home. Drawing from Francis’s Laudato Si’ and Desiderio Desideravi, as well as from various works by liturgical and sacramental theologian Kevin Irwin, this article aims to demonstrate the close connection that exists in Francis’s thought between the church's liturgy and the church's relationship with the natural world. Though it has been particularly emphasized in recent decades, care for creation can be grounded theologically in the church's tradition, especially in its liturgical prayer and sacramental theology. As Francis writes, “It is in the Eucharist that all that has been created finds its greatest exaltation” (Laudato Si’, 236).