Vatican City, Jun 18, 2015 / 03:03 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis' new encyclical is filled with references to his namesake, whom the Pope says is a model of how an integral ecology goes beyond matters of science and leads humanity to find God in creation.

“I believe that Saint Francis is the example par excellence of care for the vulnerable and of an integral ecology lived out joyfully and authentically,” the Pope wrote.