Integral Ecology
- Rick Bonetti
- Jul 8
- 4 min read
"Faced with the risk of a culture consumed by power, domination, and war, Pope Leo XIV's Magnifica Humanitas proposes the alternative possibility of a civilization of love founded on justice, dialogue, and shared responsibility."
On June 11, 2026, Catholic Climate Covenant hosted a panel webinar: Magnifica Humanitas: Disarming AI, Being Fully Human, and Integral Ecology
Pope Leo XIV's May 15, 2026, encyclical Magnifica Humanitas added new teaching to the Catholic Church. It invites each of us into a conversation about how to be most fully human in a world where AI is growing at an unchecked rate. The webinar considered deeper questions about our relationship with God, each other, creation, and technology.
Panelists included:
Kim Daniels, director of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University
Scott Hurd, Catholic Charities USA
Dr. Nichole Flores, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia
Dr. Paul Scherz, Professor of Theology, University of Notre Dame
Catholic Climate Covenant and the Laudato Si’ Movement-North America applauded the encylical's environmental concerns saying, "Magnifica Humanitas builds on all of the Church’s Social Doctrine, and in particular, two of Pope Francis’ influential encyclicals, Laudato Si’ (2015 on the environment) and Fratelli Tutti (2020 on human flourishing in a global community)."
Integral Ecology
The Pope's May 15th encyclical "roots integral ecology as a core lens through which to discern God’s hope for us in the current realities we live, seeing the crises of the environment and the crises of social/human relationships as one complex and integrated crisis. The common denominator in this complexity is that humans, not machines, are made in the image and likeness of our creator God."
The encyclical defines “integral human development” to mean "a process in which the growth of individuals and peoples encompasses all dimensions of existence and opens the future to subsequent generations as well.... Justice demands the recognition of the rights of society and the rights of peoples, and includes a responsibility toward future generations... Development is integral when it is not limited to the economic sphere, but promotes quality of life in its spiritual, cultural, moral and relational dimensions, while respecting our common home, the diversity of peoples and their ways of life.
84. Today, the concept of integral human development is a benchmark for the evaluation of integral ecology, which has become an indispensable dimension of the Church’s Social Doctrine. Indeed, the quality of development is measured by the ability to integrate justice toward people and the care of our common home, and to promote dignified living conditions, access to necessary goods, just social relations, care of creation, and consideration for future generations. It follows that true progress is not what increases the well-being of some by degrading ecosystems, shifting costs onto the most disadvantaged communities, or compromising the living conditions of those who will follow us.
85. Seen in this light, integral human development is the framework through which we can interpret the changes of our time, including those brought about by the digital revolution. Technological innovations, including artificial intelligence, are not neutral, for they can either foster participation and justice or exacerbate inequality, control and exclusion. For this reason, they must be evaluated by asking a crucial question: Do they truly help individuals and people to become more humane and fraternal, while respecting our common home and future generations?
Integral ecology is a holistic approach to ecology, emphasizing human and social dimensions, and the interconnectedness of life on Earth. It studies the relationships between living organisms and the ecosystem in which they develop.
Wikipedia says, "The use of the term 'integral ecology' probably first appeared in Hillary B. Moore's Marine Ecology in 1958. Since then, multiple authors have used the term to convey unique but overlapping concepts in the intellectual atmosphere of ecology. In the two decades leading up to the encyclical's release, the concept evolved into a formal term, largely due to the contributions of Leonardo Boff and Thomas Berry
According to Ryszard F. Sadowski, "parts of Pope Francis's encyclical on integral ecology seem to have been influenced by Boff and Berry. Some similar themes include the holistic approach, the common good, and sustainability.
Leonardo Boff is a Brazilian Catholic theologian, philosopher, writer, and former Catholic priest known for his active support for Latin American liberation theology
Thomas Berry, (1914-2009) was an American Catholic priest, cultural historian, and scholar of the world's religions, especially Asian traditions. Later, as he studied Earth history and evolution, he called himself a "geologian".
"From his academic beginnings as a historian of world cultures and religions, Berry developed into a historian of the Earth and its evolutionary processes. He was influenced by the work of the Jesuit scientist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, and he served as president of the American Teilhard Association (1975–1987).
Berry took Teilhard's major ideas on evolution and expanded them into an epic story to which we belong. To that end, with the cosmologist Brian Swimme, he wrote The Universe Story (1992). The multimedia project Journey of the Universe (2011) was also inspired by this perspective. This is a film (dedicated to Berry), a book, a series of conversations on DVDs and podcasts, and online courses from Yale/Coursera."
