The most complex problems in today's world, from safeguarding the environment to justice towards the poor, need the courageous commitment to rethink the economic paradigms of our time. This calls against careless resource exploitation and short-sighted policies that look to immediate profit without long-term prospects. Starting from the example of St. Francis, it is therefore necessary to reconstruct a new integral ecology, tied to the notion of the common good, which must be implemented through solidarity choices.