Acta Francisci Pp. 1033

the earth, a central theme of the encyclical which I recently wrote in order

to "enter into dialogue with all people about our common home".4 "We need

a conversation which includes everyone, since the environmental challenge

we are undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect us all".5

In Laudato Si', I call for a courageous and responsible effort to "redi-

rect our steps",6 and to avert the most serious effects of the environmental

deterioration caused by human activity. I am convinced that we can make a

difference and I have no doubt that the United States - and this Congress -

have an important role to play. Now is the time for courageous actions and

strategies, aimed at implementing a "culture of care"7 and "an integrated

approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at

the same time protecting nature".8 "We have the freedom needed to limit

and direct technology";9 "to devise intelligent ways of… developing and

limiting our power";10 and to put technology "at the service of another type

of progress, one which is healthier, more human, more social, more inte-

gral".11 In this regard, I am confident that America's outstanding academic

and research institutions can make a vital contribution in the years ahead.

A century ago, at the beginning of the Great War, which Pope Benedict

XV termed a "pointless slaughter", another notable American was born:

the Cistercian monk Thomas Merton. He remains a source of spiritual

inspiration and a guide for many people. In his autobiography he wrote:

"I came into the world. Free by nature, in the image of God, I was nev-

ertheless the prisoner of my own violence and my own selfishness, in the

image of the world into which I was born. That world was the picture of

Hell, full of men like myself, loving God, and yet hating him; born to love

him, living instead in fear of hopeless self-contradictory hungers". Merton

was above all a man of prayer, a thinker who challenged the certitudes of

his time and opened new horizons for souls and for the Church. He was

also a man of dialogue, a promoter of peace between peoples and religions.

4 Ibid., 3. 5 Ibid., 14. 6 Ibid., 61. 7 Ibid., 231. 8 Ibid., 139. 9 Ibid., 112.

10 Ibid., 78. 11 Ibid., 112.