Fall Film Festival: Francis Calls for Action

Two Mount Mercy students watching one of the videos as the Fall Diversity Film Festival.

I feel the need to get a copy of “Laudato Si,” a 2015 encyclical by Pope Francis. I know I can read it for free online, but I would prefer a booklet version.

On Friday, the Department of Social Work at Mount Mercy University held a “Fall Diversity Film Festival.” You could go to Flaherty Community Room, grab some popcorn and a beverage like hot cider or hot chocolate, and then choose another room in Basile to view a film.

Six films were offered, but due to having a music practice Friday afternoon, I was only able to view two. Before going to the Chapel of Mercy to practice ringing hand bells, I watched “Coexistence Architecture: VinziRast-mittendrin.” It was a six-minute look at a project in Vienna where people in need are housed together and work at a restaurant. I liked that film, then went to my bell practice, and came back.

For my second film, I selected “The Letter.” My plan was to watch half of it and them probably head home for the day because the showing was broken into part 1 and 2—but instead, I stayed and watched the whole thing. It was too compelling to stop.

The 2022 YouTube documentary is about an invitation sent by The Vatican for various people (among them two scientists from Hawaii, a climate refugee from Senegal, a 13-year-old climate activist from India, an indigenous chief from the Amazon region) to meet Pope Francis as representatives of the many types of people who experience the negative impact of climate change.

The event was set up by the Laudato Si Movement, named after the Pope’s 2015 encyclical “Laudato Si” which he wrote as a letter to all of humanity, enjoining us to wake up to the environmental crisis we face. I know that the event was, to some extent, a PR stunt, but it was genuine, too. The voices of these people were important to listen to.

The central problem that Francis spoke about in the film is that humans don’t seem to understand how urgent it is to act to reverse global warming.

“We see what is happening, and the worst thing is we are becoming used to it,” he said.

MMU student enjoys popcorn while watching a film.

My favorite person to watch in the documentary was Ridhima Pandey, the 13-year-old girl from India. The documentary features all of the people getting their invitation to meet Francis in Rome, and she was clearly excited as only a child can be. And yet she was also smart and mature for her age—sometimes, the young have not yet had their vision clouded by years and can speak and see clearly.

Then there was the heartbreaking moment when Arouna Sande, a climate refugee from Senegal, gets a cell phone call from a friend who joined other climate refugees on a dangerous boat journey to reach Europe. Most didn’t make it when the boat sank.

Anyway, I really enjoyed the event and only wished I had seen more films. I was moved by “The Letter,” and I hope others will be, too. Fortunately, the full film is available for free on YouTube:

Videos Show Contrasting Views of the World

From a GOP lawmaker, Sen. Mike Lee, and from a Democrat, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, we have recent viral videos that display sharply different views on the key challenge of our time—the looming ecological disaster that is climate change:

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Is it real? Are you real? Details matter a lot, but yes, the answer has been clear for a long time.

I don’t know if the Green New Deal is the complete, correct answer to this problem, but the contrasting views seen here help clarify that at least Ocasio-Cortez is dealing with real problems in the real world. Whether her answers are politically feasible is a fair question, but whether there is a problem that requires New Deal-like focus is clearly a question that: “yes.”

As she says, we’ve known about climate change as a fact for her entire life. I recall as an undergraduate student (I earned my BA in 1982) that it was an issue already being kicked around in academia. Many on the right have spent years quibbling and raising objections, while the science has become clearer with each passing year.

I’m not a scientist, and thus I’m not the best person to judge this—but in a democracy, where a self-governing people are required to make reasoned judgments, it’s important to know who we should trust on which questions.

And looking at these two videos, the stark contrast is clear. One person  makes simplistic, mocking, often obviously untrue points. I don’t find babies to be a problem—I’m a fan of human reproduction—but to suggest “American babies” are the solution to climate change in the way Sen. Lee does is embarrassing. It’s an odd, nationalist argument.

Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, on the other hand, is entirely rational and on target in her rant. The looming environmental and climate change crisis that all humans face is not a partisan issue, it’s a global issue, and those babies Sen. Lee wants us to have? We need us to urgently act to ensure a decent future for them—as well as for all of the non-American babies that he so awfully traduces.

I don’t mean this an unqualified, ringing endorsement of the Green New Deal in all its particulars. But the idea of a Green New Deal is one that we—young and old, Democrat and Republican and Independent and Socialist and Capitalists and Catholics and Muslims and Buddhists, etc.—need to rally around and make central to the 2020 campaign.

And again, looking at the videos: Voters, who can you trust?

She may be young, but Alexandria is 29, not 15. And she’s right. We should examine her plan and adjust it as needed to make it practical—but simply rejecting the Green New Deal for trivial reasons  is not the way forward.

It’s not a partisan issue. Shame on the Mike Lees of the world for trivializing it.

And thank you, Rep. Asacio-Corez, for being such a breath of fresh air, even if that air is expelled in anger and frustration. Keep at it, young lady. This old white guy is cheering you on and ready to support the ideal of a Green New Deal.