‘Being One with Everything’

Sister Joan Brown. (Photo courtesy of NMPBS)

In 2015, Pope Francis issued an encyclical letter focused on the Earth, the changing climate, the economy and social justice, “On Care for Our Common Home, Laudato Si’.”

In that, he called for structural economic changes — especially within the United States, which amassed wealth by emitting huge amounts of greenhouse gases. These structural changes, he wrote, will ease demands upon the Earth and protect the planet’s poorest people — who are already experiencing the brunt of the impacts from climate change.

“It was a call, an urgent call, for us as human beings. It wasn’t just for Catholics; it was for any person on the planet to see themselves as part of the natural world,” says Sister Joan Brown, executive director of New Mexico and El Paso Interfaith Power and Light. “To say, ‘We are in this crisis, and we have to do something because we love this place that we live in and brings us life.’”

In 2023, Pope Francis followed up on that letter, writing: “Despite all attempts to deny, conceal, gloss over or relativize the issue, the signs of climate change are here and increasingly evident.”

In 2023, he also wrote, “Some effects of the climate crisis are already irreversible, at least for several hundred years, such as the increase in the global temperature of the oceans, their acidification and the decrease of oxygen. Ocean waters have a thermal inertia and centuries are needed to normalize their temperature and salinity, which affects the survival of many species. This is one of the many signs that the other creatures of this world have stopped being our companions along the way and have become instead our victims.”

In her work, Brown says, “I try to help faith communities take this jump from separation to being one with everything.”

As part of an NMPBS special, “Loving Our Changing Homelands,” Brown explains what has changed (and not changed) since the 2015 encyclical letter. She also talks about the value of interfaith work in building community and adapting to climate change in New Mexico.

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