In the 1980s, with the Cold War underway and fears of nuclear war spreading alongside concerns about rapid cultural change, Cardinal Joseph Bernadin, Archbishop of Chicago, helped popularize the “seamless garment” approach to Catholic public deliberation. Bernadin campaigned relentlessly against nuclear proliferation, and paid equal attention to abortion, capital punishment, and other forms of pervasive violence: His vision of a “seamless garment” advanced the idea that in order to be effective, Christian ethics must be coherent. As he remarked at a 1984 lecture, “A consistent ethic does not say everyone in the Church must do all things, but it does say that as individuals and groups pursue one issue, whether it is opposing abortion or capital punishment, the way we oppose one threat should be related to support for a systemic vision of life.” In other words, though individuals and organizations within the Church might pursue specific political goals, their ethos must be wholly synchronized around the valuation of human life. There is no room in such an approach for creation care (a Christian term for environmental action) or welfare to be ruled out of the purview of Catholic moral theology: There is one morality, and it informs all principles.

In the opening paragraphs of Laudato, Pope Francis invokes the language of the “seamless garment” ethos to frame the 100-page letter that follows: “It is our humble conviction that the divine and the human meet in the slightest detail in the seamless garment of God’s creation, in the last speck of dust of our planet.” Francis deftly guides the metaphor of the garment from a consideration of ethics alone to a consideration of creation itself: In every aspect of the created order, he suggests, there is a single purpose, a single plan at work. Our task as humanity is to follow it, and to flourish.

Unity is the organizing principle of Laudato. Francis opens his encyclical with a brief consideration of former popes, saints, and scholars who have established Catholicism’s interest in creation care, thereby establishing continuity between his concerns and those of the historical Church. He maintains this dialogue with his predecessors in the pursuing chapters. In doing so, Francis demonstrates his commitment to the Church’s tradition, and gracefully disposes of any grumbling about his break from prior teaching. Laudato treats novel issues—like genetically modified crops, biological warfare agents, and global development problems—because they are new, but the logic of his treatment is firmly rooted in the Church’s conventional theology.

After demonstrating his own relationship to the Church’s historical teaching on creation care, Francis proceeds to enumerate the details of our environmental crisis, along with its origins and moral implications, before proceeding to suggestions for response and education. In each chapter, themes of unity and disunity thread disparate issues together. “We have forgotten that we ourselves are dust of the earth; our very bodies are made up of her elements, we breathe her air and we receive life and refreshment from her waters,” Francis writes. Our distance from the creation that supports us spirals into many different iterations of estrangement: The example of Saint Francis, the Pope writes, demonstrates how “inseparable the bond is between concern for nature, justice for the poor, commitment to society, and interior peace.” They all come together because they are all of a single moral piece. Neglect one, and the rest fall into disrepair.

Francis’s unified vision comes most powerfully to fruition in the encyclical’s fourth chapter, where he explores “integral ecology”—that is, the interrelation of humanity, creation, society, and politics. “If everything is related,” Francis writes, “then the health of a society’s institutions has consequences for the environment and the quality of human life.” From here his analysis expands to consider consumerism, which “has a leveling effect on cultures”; colonialism (“it is essential to show special care for indigenous communities and their cultural traditions,” Francis argues); the right to dignified housing and safe systems of transport; and intergenerational care. “Men and women of our postmodern world run the risk of rampant individualism, and many problems of society are connected with today’s self-centered culture of instant gratification,” Francis concludes.