Laudato si is a welcome reimagination of Catholic theology, but its view of Earth as religious subject requires development. While speaking of the “cry of the Earth,” affirming nonhuman agency, desire, and suffering, Earth’s subjectivity is silenced by the encyclical’s Catholic-humanist framework. This panel attends to non-human alterity as a form of religious subjectivity that directly contributes reimagining Catholic theological ethics and explores problems arising when religious insiders overdetermine Earth’s identity and speak on its behalf without considering expressions that exceed the constraints of humanism and theological tradition.The papers (1) assert that Francis appeal to the “cry of the Earth” is not poetic fancy, but an invitation to negotiate real relationships among creatures and consider Earth as the subject of trauma (Middleton); (2) argue that Laudato si flattens the identity Creation, failing to account for the particularity of non-human communities and avoids the potential of non-human animals as religious subjects (Covey); (3) read Laudato si alongside of Son of Songs to resist binary thinking and embrace alterity as the prerequisite for human and non-human relationality, showing that Earth’s song of praise transforms into one of protest against alienation among creatures (Webb); (4) develop Pope Francis’ statements on food/animal ethics away from a sustainability focused ethic toward a post-sustainability ethic of compassionate care (Eaton).Chair: Matthew Eaton (King’s College, USA)Speakers:Allison Covey (Villanova University), On Care for Whose Common Home? Laudato Si’ and the Question of Animal OutsidersTim Middleton (Pembroke College, Oxford University), The Traumatised Cry of Earth: Relational Anthropomorphism and Laudato Si Lyndon Webb (Merton College, Oxford University), Earth’s Song of Resistance: Reading Laudato Si’ alongside Song of Songs Matthew Eaton (King’s College, USA), Compassionate Eating: Food, Care Ethics, and Laudato Si