The Independent News Source
NCR on Kindle - NCR classifieds - YouTube - Twitter - Facebook - Email Alerts - RSS
PDF versionBenedict issues forceful environmental message
Says humans have an obligation to 'care for and cultivate' creation
Dec. 15, 2009
Pope Benedict XVI greets people gathered for his Angelus prayer from the window of his apartment overlooking St. Peter's Square at the Vatican Dec. 13. The square was packed with children and families who brought their figurines of baby Jesus to be bless ed by the pope. (CNS/Paul Haring)
Benedict XVI has already earned a reputation as the “green pope” because of his repeated calls for stronger environmental protection, as well as gestures such as installing solar panels atop a Vatican audience hall and signing an agreement to make the Vatican Europe’s first carbon-neutral state. Now he’s cemented that profile by issuing his most comprehensive document on environmental ethics to date, in the form of an annual message for the World Day of Peace.
Strikingly, the document appeared as the nations of the world were meeting in Copenhagen to hammer out a deal on climate change – one of a host of environmental threats Benedict identified as an urgent moral priority.
The pope’s language was forceful.
“How can one remain indifferent in the face of problems such as climate change, desertification, the degradation and loss of productivity in vast agricultural areas, the pollution of rivers and aquifers, the loss of biodiversity, the increase in extreme weather, and the deforestation of equatorial and tropical areas?” he asked.
“How can one overlook the growing phenomenon of so-called ‘environmental refugees,’ meaning persons who, because of environmental degradation, have to leave – often together with their belongings – in a kind of forced movement, in order to escape the risks and the unknown? How can we not react to the conflicts already underway, as well as potential new ones, linked to access to natural resources?”
“These are all questions,” Benedict XVI said, “that have a profound impact on the exercise of human rights, such as the rights to life, to food, to health and to development.”
The World Day of Peace is an observance launched by the Catholic church under Pope Paul VI in 1967. The day is actually marked on Jan. 1, but the Vatican released Benedict’s message Dec. 15.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Full text of Pope Benedict's World Peace Day message:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NCR: February 3-16, 2012
Subscribe to NCR to get all the news and special features that aren't always available online. In this issue:
- US News: Bishops Host Conference on Immigration
Conference fields advocates' questions on law, policy
- Special Section:Deacons.Serving as parish administrator; roles of wives; and more
- Study: Black Catholics are more engaged
New study by Notre Dame researcher about parish involvement in America
Benedict’s title was “If you want to cultivate peace, take care of creation” – a deliberate play on Paul VI’s famous injunction, “If you want peace, work for justice.”
Benedict accented a vision of the cosmos as a gift of God, which human beings have an obligation to “care for and cultivate.” In that regard, the pope called for “a profound and farsighted revision of the model of development,” based not only on the needs of today’s “living beings, human and non-human,” but those of generations to come.
At the level of specific policy measures, Benedict XVI advocated:
- A new mode of calculating the cost of economic activity, which would factor in environmental impact;
- Greater investment in solar energy and other forms of energy with a reduced environmental footprint;
- Strategies of rural development concentrated on small-scale farmers and their families;
- Progressive disarmament, including “a world free of nuclear weapons.”
While saying that primary responsibility for taking action must fall to wealthy industrialized nations, Benedict pointedly added that less developed nations “cannot be exonerated from their own responsibility.” Exactly how much less developed nations should be expected to curb emissions, and to take other steps potentially limiting their economic growth, has been a major sticking point at the Copenhagen summit.
At the same time, Benedict XVI wasn’t simply issuing a set of political talking points. He also insisted that protecting the environment is “the duty of every person,” one which demands changes in personal habits and attitudes.
Benedict called for “new styles of life,” based not solely upon the logic of consumption but also “sobriety and solidarity,” as well as “prudence.”
Benedict linked environmental protection to other core values, such as the right to life “in every phase and in every condition,” and the family. He cautioned against a “new pantheism with neo-pagan accents” that would elevate nature into an absolute value, at the expense of human dignity.
Benedict’s 2010 World Peace Day message builds upon what many experts already regarded as the most striking element of his social teaching. His track record on ecology is extensive enough that Catholic writer Woodene Koenig-Bricker collected it into a book in May 2009, titled Ten Commandments for the Environment (Ave Maria Press.)
John L. Allen Jr. is NCR’s Senior Correspondent.
This is a little bit much.
This is a little bit much. The Church has no competence in ecology per se. The Pope needs to be careful in what he says. Clearly people should not abuse the environment by polluting it but with industrial economies there is usually a tradeoff bewteen the environment & industrial pollution.
Ideally, there should be no pollution at all but that can be expensive. This means non-pollution impacts the poor more than others. Where does this leave the so called preferential option for the poor?
There are no black & whites when it comes to the environment. The most one can say is that there should be as little pollution and degradation of the environment as possible given industrial economies.
The thoughts you express are
The thoughts you express are the very sort of thinking that the pope is criticizing. Pollution is not just a trade off, especially when, for example, most toxic chemicals are not regulated by the United States and supposedly safe public water throughout the United States is laced with toxic chemicals because federal and state laws regulating water quality have not kept up with basic science. You are doing what economists have always done and that is to treat pollution as an externality and not as an actual cost. That is fallacious thinking in my opinion.
The pope is asking us to rethink our relationship with the world, and if he can't ask us to do that then who can?
"Each creature possesses its
"Each creature possesses its own particular goodness and perfection. Each of the various creatures, willed in its own being, reflects in its own way a ray of God's infinite wisdom and goodness. Humans must therefore respect the particular goodness of every creature, to avoid any disordered use of things which would be in contempt of the Creator and would bring disastrous consequences for human beings and their environment." (CCC:339)
THE VATICAN CAN AFFORD SOLAR
THE VATICAN CAN AFFORD SOLAR ENERGY--MOST PEOPLE HAVE TO EAT AND SHELTER THEIR FAMILIES-WHAT ARE THE POPE'S VIEWS ON PRIVATE ENTERPRISE JOB GROWTH???????
They are not mutually
They are not mutually exclusive. Actually, if the US were to invest as much money in small alternative energy companies rather than large oil and coal companies, the economy would probably be doing better.
Good article and great
Good article and great encyclical well worth reading (and sharing). The Pope's highlighting of the earlier contributions of his predecessors is also great information. Let us pray we can all come together to take action on this vital subject.
His support of the
His support of the environment is wonderful, but he cautions against elevating nature above humanity. Humans are part of nature - all nature must be elevated, even the smallest of beings. It is all God's creation.
His Holiness has made a
His Holiness has made a pronouncement long overdue.
While world leaders each try to figure a way to save our planet, without giving up anything.(An exercise in futility) The Holy Father tells us that we should ALL work hand in hand to change our life styles, for if WE FAIL, ALL Humanity will FAIL and at best revert to the stone age! all our scientific knowledge will be worthless if we can not produce the materials needed to all this progress without destroying Our Fragile Environment.
This is a case where all win or all loose!
!
The Book of Genesis says "Be
The Book of Genesis says "Be fruitful and multiply, " not overrun. One of the most effective way to go green is to limit population growth. I would take this more seriously from the Pope if people were allowed to make their own decisions about reproduction with what works for them. Trust the laity who are the ones living with this reality. Catholics are mature enough and educated enough to make the right decision for their situation. Stop making people feel guilty about one of their most precious gifts from God-the abiiity to love and be loved in a sexual union,independent of the generative process.
I love the Holy Father. I
I love the Holy Father. I cheered at his election to the papacy, I had thought that the election of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger was too much to hope for, and when he was elected, I walked on air for days. Even now, I still do.
Having said that, though, I recognize that not every word uttered by Pope Benedict XVI is Gospel truth. This "Peace Day" message falls into that category. While I certainly agree that creation is God's gift to us, a gift that requires us to practice good stewardship. I also agree that we have the obligation to exploit creation in a way that promotes the greatest good for the greatest number of people (free market and capitalism!). Finally, no one wants to destroy the environment and pollute the air or water, despite what the radical environmentalists and other leftists would have us believe.
While I agree with those positions, I disagree with the Holy Father's wholesale embrace of the Big Lie of "Man-made Global Warming" (a lie that has been exposed via the release of secret emails from the University of East Anglia). I am not surprised, because Pope Benedict, like Pope John Paul II before him, is a man of Europe and, like most Europeans, he has great faith in international organizations such as the UN. He trusts them to do only what is good for the world; it is a sign of his utter trust in the innate goodness of his fellow man. I doubt that it would occur to him that the UN and other international bodies, as well as "scientists", would lie to the world. Sadly, they will and they do, regularly.
Ultimately, this all falls into that category known as "prudential judgment". The Holy Father offers his thoughts and opinions on certain matters, such as climate change and economics, and we, as Catholics, are obliged to listen to, pray over and weigh carefully those opinions and thoughts. Then, on these matters, we make our own judgments.
I respect and love the Holy Father, but on this matter, as on the issue of economics, I disagree with him. Thankfully, it is not a matter of faith and morals, not a matter of magisterial teaching, but rather a matter of prudence.
In other words, when being a
In other words, when being a good catholic conflicts with being a good republican ..... the pope can go take a hike.
paultre and clint draw the
paultre and clint draw the line in their orthodoxy when it touches their greater god: polluting free market capitalism.
The rich young man also wandered sadly away from Jesus Christ, unwilling to let go of all that held him back. He prefered to own Jesus than to follow Him, and Clint prefers his incandescent light bulbs and Monte Carlo to hearing our Holy Father.
The first word of the Rule for Monks from Our Holy Father Saint Benedict is "Listen (Ausculta)!"
Hear our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI as he speaks here prophetically to our hearts and to our wasteful lives which are destroying God's beautiful Creation.
frère charles du désert OSB OBLAT (Congrégation de Subiaco)
It is always interesting to
It is always interesting to see conservatives who would usually tell the rest of us how we have to hang on the Pope's every word wiggle out of it when they don't like his environmental or economic messages. Which is it?
Bravo pour Benedict! He came
Bravo pour Benedict! He came not a moment too soon, but it may be that his "too soon" may already be too late. Let us hope that others in responsible positions in the Church may echo his feelings.
Conveniently overlooked in
Conveniently overlooked in this report was Benedict's recent "shout out" to the Legionaries of Christ:
Legionaries congratulated by Pope at the Angelus
Vatican City, December 15 (CNA) .- After the Angelus this past Sunday, Pope Benedict directed a special message in Spanish to the newly ordained priests of the Legionaries of Christ from the window of the papal residence.
Fifty-nine priests, representing four continents, were ordained to the order on Saturday, Dec. 12, in the Roman basilica of St. Paul Outside-the-Walls. The ordinations took place on the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
There was a large contingent of priests, family members and members of the Regnum Christi movement in St. Peter's Square, to whom the Pontiff addressed an "affectionate greeting." The hundreds of members received the salute with raucous applause.
The Legionaries of Christ are currently the subject of an Apostolic Visitation, following the revelation that their now-deceased founder, Fr. Marcial Maciel, led a double life."
PLUS CA CHANGE.....
Being under investigation
Being under investigation does not make one an enemy of the Church. It is similar to the apostolic visitation of women religious in the United States. There is a problem, and so the Holy See is investigating in both instances. Also, the failings of the founder don't neccessarily damn the entire order. Think about it -- the first Pope denied even knowing Jesus three times. There are some great LC priests, and some not-so-great, just as there are some great religious sisters and some not-so-great. Regardless, the Holy Father is shepherd and father to all, and therefore comforts as well as corrects.
Your point? Somehow, those
Your point? Somehow, those 59 newly ordained priests did something wrong in your eyes. Or perhaps the Pope did something wrong in wishing them well. Or perhaps their greatest sin in your eyes is the fact they are Legionaries. Not sure what you are upset about here. But I think I really know what it is. The fact that a conservative order has 59 new priests and your dying liberal orders probably have less than a dozen. Is that it?
PS-in case you are wondering I have no formal association with LC/RC. They are too liberal for me.
The only problem is there
The only problem is there founder. What is wrong with sending words of encouragement to new priests?
It's always interesting to
It's always interesting to read people who are obviously politically (and theologically) conservative - and would usually be talking about how we have to take whatever the Pope says as Gospel - hedge on that when the Pope says something liberals are more likely to like (as in "Caritas in Veritate" and this speech). Which is it? Do we have to follow what he says or not?
Most climate scientists, and
Most climate scientists, and even a few Republicans, believe that the earth is warming and the actions of people are responsible. It is the responsible thing to do to act to reduce climate change.
It is SOOO sad to me that
It is SOOO sad to me that Catholics constantly break down on the right/left conservative/liberal slant. If the pope says something about the environment, the left people cheer and the right criticize; if the pope says something about abortion, the right cheer and the left criticize. He is our shepherd, people. Listen to him. He sits in the See of Peter, in an apostolic faith. He was elected *on the 4th ballot* by the princes of the Church.
I don't mind free thinking, but this left/right dichotomy is anything but that. Is anyone out there not a cafeteria Catholic, on the right or the left? I wonder.
It's all so depressing. I think what he said about the environment was spectacular, just as what he said about abortion, just as what he said about capitalism, just as what he said about relativism and christology.
This message is useless. It
This message is useless. It is just throwing a bone. It was so broad and bland.
Has anyone ever watched South Park and seen the character Token the Black?
Token the Green is what this is.
Post new comment