The tsunami of fashionable nonsense that has flooded the public domain in the cause of saving the planet has understandably left many Catholics feeling a little shivery.

But they should not be put off. The care of creation is a vital strand of Catholic social teaching articulated not only by Pope Francis in Laudato si’, his encyclical of 2015 “on the care of our common home”, but also in the teachings of his two immediate predecessors. The Catechism of the Catholic Church is equally emphatic, speaking of the beauty of creation reflecting the infinite beauty of the Creator himself.