Jonathan Safran Foer deeply moved by 'Laudate Deum'

By Deborah Castellano Lubov

"I have read innumerable books and articles about climate change, and I can't remember having been as inspired as I was by this document."

Jonathan Safran Foer in the Vatican

In an interview with Vatican News, well-known American author, Jonathan Safran Foer praised Pope Francis' just-released Apostolic Exhortation Laudate Deum which builds on his 2015 landmark Encyclical on the environment Laudato si': on care for our common home.
  

On the day following the publication of the new papal document on October 4, journalists were escorted to Vatican City's Largo della Radio, for a special conference highlighting the Pope's latest appeal to protect the earth, using some of his strongest statements yet, and backed with well-supported scientific data and findings.

In the Pope's Exhortation, which looks ahead to the upcoming COP28 in Dubai, he appeals for action to combat suffering, especially of the vulnerable. The Holy Father says we are at "a breaking point," suggesting that even small lifestyle changes, could make a significant difference in the long run.

Moved and inspired

During the interview, Foer acknowledged that he immediately accepted his invitation to speak in the Vatican, prior to reading the Pope's text. "It was only after I read it that I said, 'Oh, I need to bring my family,'" including his one-year-old daughter, whom he said, represents "the future generations who will be affected most by the climate crisis."

"Pope Francis," he observed, "is a man who understands the moment, both in terms of understanding the urgency of the crisis, but also understanding the way that words work."

Inspiring concrete change, without frightening

Foer lamented that discourse has started to fall apart, especially in the United States. "We no longer know how to talk to each other, especially about contentious issues, especially when we feel vulnerable. Vulnerability tends to bring out aggression and defensiveness."

"The Pope," the bestselling author went on to say, "is a remarkable writer and has an incredible talent for bringing us to the point of necessary sensitivity" while also, he continued, "inspiring" rather than "making us nervous" or making us "take a step back."

While suggesting "Pope Francis makes us take a step forward," he stated, "It reawakened my realization of exactly what's going on,"  and pointed out, "The state of the health of the planet seems to be one of the easiest things to forget. We have so many incentives to forget it, and this document inspires us to remember."

Little decisions can make a difference

Regarding the fact that although there is a certain awareness that has led to some progress, even by government policies, to treat the phenomenon, he said there appears to be a widespread inability "to accept and perceive this crisis" in a way in which people actually take it to heart and change their lifestyles, "even if it can't be "all or nothing."

"The problem used to be climate denial in the sense of denying the science of climate change. That is not the problem in the United States anymore," Foer explained saying that a majority of politicians want the US to remain in the Paris Climate Accords, and that's something that's changed over the last few years.

WIllingness to acknowledge facts, not implications

"The problem now is a different kind of denial, which in a certain way is even more insidious, which is acknowledging the facts but not the implications of the facts, so acknowledging what it is that's happening, but not what it is that needs to be done in response," he said noting that it is something we are all guilty of.

He said it is easy to rally together and demand reform to combat climate change, but less easy to change our way of doing things.

"It's difficult to look at yourself and ask, what am I capable of? Do I need to take this flight? Do I need to eat this meal? Do I need to drive at all? And that is what I think the Pope is asking us to do, you know, to re-envision our culture and to move from a kind of rhetorical relationship to climate change to an experienced one."

Emissions per individual in US, two times greater than in China

The Pope, in Paragraph 72 of his Exhortation, wrote: "If we consider that emissions per individual in the United States are about two times greater than those of individuals living in China, and about seven times greater than the average of the poorest countries, we can state that a broad change in the irresponsible lifestyle connected with the Western model would have a significant long-term impact..." He also acknowledged the US Bishops' acknowledging that not caring for the environment hurts the most vulnerable.

To this observation, Mr. Foer noted: "We already understand how this works. In the United States, we have graduated taxes, so people who have money pay a higher portion of their income to tax because they are more able to. It makes perfect sense to most people, and this is just an extension of that logic."

"The difference is we are not only more able to contribute, we are more responsible because we are more responsible for greenhouse gas emissions," he reflected while emphasizing that "at the end of the day," it is "humankind" that contributes, and needs to react.

"That's where the Pope has a unique position because, of course, he is the leader of the Catholic Church."

"I'm Jewish, so he doesn't speak to me as a religious leader per se, but he does speak to me as a kind of leader of humankind. He is somebody that despite, practising a different religion, I look to for wisdom and guidance."

"I think that that that is something that that is really fundamental to this document is remembering our obligations as members of humankind."

Seeing COP28 as a means to find solutions

Looking ahead to COP28, Foer acknowledged that many have observed that there is a certain disconnect between some of the policies adopted by host nation UAE regarding fossil fuels and the good intentions that are behind the upcoming meeting.  

"It's part of a larger conversation about accepting what our starting points are and rather than critiquing our starting points and finding solutions rather than finding flaws. You know, another journalist just a minute ago asked me 'What do you make of the fact that the Pope eats meat?' And I said, 'Nothing at all' ...What does he think about the fact that I flew here? We are all in different ways. hopefully, doing our best and our best is different for each of us."

These are things, Foer concluded, that are all going to have to change with time." Meanwhile, we should appreciate good starting points.