Third Act Founder Bill McKibben took time to write this short message for our Third Act Faith members, reporting on his recent conference with Pope Leo outside of Rome, and the importance of our work. Hear more from Bill when he speaks at TAF’s General Meeting on Tuesday, October 28. Read details and register here.
Greetings, friends. I’m on the way home from Castel Gondolfo, the summer home of popes for centuries, where I’ve been at a conference to mark the tenth anniversary of Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’. This celebration was planned before his death, but took on new significance afterwards, for it would turn out to be one of the first “political” appearances of Leo XIV. The question was whether he would follow in Francis’s footsteps on the climate question, or whether he would pull some punches in deference to the climate denialism in his home country and elsewhere. Obviously these are critical questions for us at Third Act, and especially Third Act Faith; we’ve leaned hard on the moral voice of the Vatican this last decade as a bulwark in this fight.
I can report, first of all, that Leo was steadfast. He was clear in his short homily that climate denialism was absurd—indeed, that the challenges Francis had identified were “even more relevant today than they were ten years ago.” And in what seemed like a pointed response to the deregulatory zeal of the White House (Remember that the EPA director said, as he gutted dozens of climate laws at one sweep this spring, that he was “driving a stake through the heart of the climate change religion.”), he added that we should put “pressure on governments to implement more rigorous regulations, procedures, and controls” because “only then is it possible to mitigate the damage done to the environment.” (If you want to read a longer version of my report on his speech, which seemed a remarkable contrast to Trump’s address to America’s generals the day before, you will find it here.)
I will add that I found him to be strong, in apparent good health, and extremely familiar as a representatives of the species American Midwesterner. I don’t think he’ll be brash and colorful in the ways of his predecessor, but it feels as if he will be faithful to his example, in a way that may allow the consolidation of that work. And I can say with great confidence that Laudato Si’ is now fully integrated into the machinery of Roman Catholicism. We met at a large center on the grounds of the Castel Gondolfo, which is devoted to the work of the encyclical, and with many Vatican officials whose job is spreading its word. The Laudato Si’ movement, begun a decade ago by friends of mine in the climate fight, has grown into a mature formation; they will be good allies to Third Act going forward.
I reported to all of them especially on Sun Day, and our hopes for a rapid and dramatic solar revolution. Perhaps because of St. Francis’s never-forgotten appeal to love Brother Sun, there is both a practical and a moral understanding that this is a beautiful path forward. I’m flying home as I write these words, and I confess some part of me wishes I could stay in Rome a while longer, away from the hideous cruelty that currently marks our nation, too much of it in the name of a Christianity I don’t recognize. But, we have work to do—and I am more grateful than I can say to have you as colleagues in that work.
Godspeed, friends.
About Bill McKibben
Co-founder of Third Act, Bill McKibben is the author of The End of Nature and 20 other books, most recently Here Comes the Sun. He has received numerous honors, including the Right Livelihood Award and Gandhi Peace Prize.
“Going Deep” is one of two newsletters published by Third Act Faith. Our other newsletter, Third Acts of Faith, provides our members and subscribers with the month's latest “News & Views.” It is usually published on the third Thursday of each month.
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