We live in a world of fear, for our own individual well-being as well as the well-being of those we love. We live in great anxiety in the midst of countless threatening crises.

We are not managing well our affairs as individual human beings or as compatriots and colleagues of the rest of the human race. We seem intent on destroying our world and our lives, or at least of not doing our part to enrich our environment and our existence in that environment. We have become victims of our own ill-conceived and misguided actions towards others and, by the same token, we are victims of one another's conduct or, more accurately, of others' misconduct.

We are, consequently, on the verge of despair as we head toward a new kind of pandemic. That pandemic may well jeopardize and undermine our mental health, and it will be triggered by our tragic penchant to fill our lives with destructive, self-defeating behavior.

The aim of this work is to wrestle with the questions of what has brought us to our present sorry state and what changes need to occur if we are to relieve our suffering and honor our past achievements by remedying how we have foolishly and misguidedly perverted them. A Secular Encyclical invites the reader to consider new forms of possible corrective action that will improve our individual and collective affairs and our quality of life. Includes Readers Guide.