The Importance of Ecological Conversion for the Care of the Earth and Human Health in the Encyclical Laudato Si’

Abstract

Based on the reading of the Encyclical Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home, this article contends that the health of the Earth and human well-being are closely related to one another. That is why the ecological crisis is a serious threat not only to the health of the Earth but also to humans. Facing an ecological crisis that threatens the health of the Earth and humankind, how does Catholicism respond, especially through the Encyclical Laudato Si'? Using content analysis and interpretive methods of the texts in the Encyclical Laudato Si’, this essay concludes and suggests the importance of ecological conversion to overcoming the ecological crisis to care for the health of the Earth and its people. For this reason, it is important to change the exploitative paradigm into a paradigm that is friendly and caring for the Earth in humans themselves. This shifting paradigm must also be manifested in shared behavior through the Earth care movement and human health concerns as a realization of ecological conversion.