The late Pope Francis wrote an encyclical ten years ago that garnered negative reactions from some industries and conservative pundits. It was generated by the Pope’s love of the Earth and the theology that requires direct confrontation against the powers of global profit which continue to ravage land and resources needed for communities of people to survive, as well as for animals and plants to exist and thrive. This encyclical was titled, Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home. “Everything is related,” wrote Francis, “and we human beings are united as brothers and sisters on a wonderful pilgrimage…” He added, “Every act of cruelty towards any creature is contrary to human dignity.”
I suggest we read or re-read this amazing document and underline parts that speak with moral clarity and meditate on them. It has stirred controversy mostly in the United States when it first came out and Francis has spoken from it in many of his speeches since. The encyclical has had effects on governments and a multitude of groups, both religious and secular who observe that the Earth is groveling in the pain we inflict on it by our carelessness and selfishness.
I was inspired to look into Laudato Si again when I learned of the death of a paragon of the animal and natural world now in peril: Dr. Jane Goodall. Goodall died last week at age 91 while on a speaking tour in the U.S. She was born in London and lived most of her life in Africa where she studied primates and, literally, befriended them, sometimes at great risk. This past year Frans de Waal, an esteemed researcher on primates also passed away. His book, Mama’s Last Hug, became an instant success demonstrating the research he publicized after years of studying the emotional life of animals.
Goodall’s last book, The Book of Hope, is a deeply spiritual message relating that we, as individuals, can and must take action to staunch the hemorrhaging of earth’s resources that feed humans and animals and that provide shelter and safety promising progeny and life. When we act as individuals, we automatically create a critical mass of a concerned community that will do amazing things for the environment, Goodall claims. She particularly feels positive about the energy and idealism of youth and started, ‘Roots & Shoots’ for young people with chapters in 60 countries. The Jane Goodall Institute was started in 1970.
In Mama’s Last Hug, de Waal recounts the story of Jan van Hooff, a primatologist, being notified in the middle of the night that a chimp he had befriended for over 40 years was dying in her cage. Her name was Mama. She was 59 years old. The two had forged an unusually close bond and van Hooff was able to enter her cage as she lay dying on a bed of straw and blankets in a corner of her cage. He offered her morsels of food, but she wouldn’t take any. Suddenly, she lifted her head and recognized van Hooff, and the reunion was an explosion of love. I watched several videos of the moment and saw Mama caress van Hooff’s head, push his hair back as if trying to see his eyes. She cried out in ecstasy; her dearest friend was kneeling by her. She threw her arm around his neck and patted his head as female chimps do to soothe baby chimps. She took the food he offered her. She was in a near fetal position unable to get up but one arm moved lovingly over van Hooff’s neck and drew his face to hers seemingly kissing him. She died a few hours later.
Goodall and de Waal are only two examples of extraordinary scientists who believed that plant and animal life are telling us something we need to hear at this point in history. Goodall was very spiritual in her approach to hope, the virtue she kept alive in her heart during her lifetime of working with animals. Her hope is based on four categories: The intellect of human beings, (We must work with nature to save ourselves, because “nature is so much more intelligent than we are”), the resilience of nature,(whole species have been saved to appear again healthy and thriving), the power of young people (as in her program Roots & Shoots and examples like Greta Thunberg and finally, the indomitable human spirit (“friendship can give hope to the hopeless”).
Reflection
Goodall’s book is an interview, a conversation with co-author Douglas Abrams. It is a serene book, honest and reflective of what motivated this remarkable woman whose discoveries about chimpanzees demonstrated their intelligence and creativity (she discovered they make tools for survival) and their emotional lives, connected to her in ways we otherwise would never have understood as possible. De Waal wrote compassionately about the brains and hearts of chimps he came to know as he studied them in the Burger Zoo in the Netherlands. Pope Francis tied the results of scientific study of animals and the Earth to the level of love, care, and respect that creation requires of us who believe, who believe in such a loving Creator gathering all of us under His wings: So happy we all have a home in Him!
I strongly suggest you read the books I’ve mentioned here (information below) and view the video of Mama’s last hug. Be sure you have Kleenex when you view the video. And finally, read the encyclical, Laudato Si for a beautiful teaching on what our faith instructs us to live concerning this important moment of “trying times.”
The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times by Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams, Celadon Books, 2021.
Mama’s Last Hug by Frans de Waal, W. W. Norton & Company, 2019.
Video of Mama’s Last Hug: Google Mama’s last hug and Jan van Hooff
Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home an Encyclical of Pope Francis, Our Sunday Visitor, Inc. 2015.
(All of these books are available at Amazon)
In All Things Charity 
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