Pope Francis thinks as big as a Planet of Integral Cities.

Pope Francis has gifted the world with a Kosmic view of the environment and the implications for climate change. He instructs the faithful that God has not given dominion to man to dominate the environment but to respect all Life. He explicates what Integral City calls the Master Code – emphasizing that man’s individual expression, must be viewed in relationship to others (particularly those in the developing world and the poor) and nature.

Integral City Thinking

Integral City Thinking

By implication that so many of the poor now live in cities, Pope Francis’ encyclical reveals the inextricable interconnected relationship of cities to their eco-regions and that cities everywhere have an obligation to steward not only the health of people but the health of the environment.

Pope Francis’ sweeping views that marry spirituality and science bring together the inner and outer worlds of peoples everywhere. He explicitly references our need to embrace Beauty and Goodness with our pursuit of Truth.  Without question Pope Francis has opened the door to an explicit Integral Ecology (the name of a whole chapter of the May 2015, Encyclical). In fact, in the May/June 2015 Encyclical on the Environment (now being conflated with the Encyclical on Climate Change) the Pope has used the word “integral” 23 times.

In the future, those of us in the Integral movement may argue, which came first – the  Integral Ecology Book (by Sean Esborn-Hargens and Michael Zimmerman) or Pope Francis’ sensitivity to “Integral Ecology”? But it already seems to me a moot point as Pope Francis has claimed the meme of “Integral Ecology “as core to his argument to value the poor and the environment.

In doing so Pope Francis renews our foundation for Integral City and the 4 Voices that we propose contribute to the survival, resilience and evolution of a Planet of Cities. In fact Pope Francis calls on all 4 Voices to act – whether they be Citizens choosing local food; Civil Society speaking truth to modern developers; City Managers enabling free access to potable water for all; and Business and Developers using technology wisely and growing enterprises organically.

Pope Francis does not equivocate with his warnings to egocentric modern business and calls for them to reinvent themselves with a worldcentric sensibility in thinking and acting on climate change as a planetary issue. In fact he enjoins Catholics and believers of other faiths to make common cause to create an impact (a word he uses 19 times) that can mitigate damage and adapt to change as quickly and as integrally as possible.

Many of Pope Francis’ points to make impact resonate with our series “How to Optimize Integral City Impact” (inspired by Roger Walsh’s 2014 Keynote at IEC). In this set of blogs we framed optimizing injunctions for the implementation and impact of Integral City Principles:

  1. How to Optimize the Impact of Integral City Work
  2. How to Optimize Integral City Impact Through Adult Development
  3. How to Optimize Integral City Impact by Getting Ideas Out Into the World
  4. How to Optimize Impact of Integral City Work from Direct Experience & Deep Wisdom
  5. How to Optimize Integral City Impact through Transconventional Religion
  6. How to Optimize Integral City Impact with Community of Practice
  7. How to Optimize Integral City Impact as Spiritual Practice
  8. How to Optimize Integral City Impact as Accomplice to the Divine

Now is the time for all good people to come to the support of our sister/mother Earth (as Pope Francis calls our planetary home) to optimize our impact on our Planet of Cities enacting the Master Code:

Take Care of Your Self

Take Care of Each Other

Take Care of this Place/Planet.