Like what you've read?

On Line Opinion is the only Australian site where you get all sides of the story. We don't
charge, but we need your support. Here�s how you can help.

  • Advertise

    We have a monthly audience of 70,000 and advertising packages from $200 a month.

  • Volunteer

    We always need commissioning editors and sub-editors.

  • Contribute

    Got something to say? Submit an essay.


 The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
On Line Opinion logo ON LINE OPINION - Australia's e-journal of social and political debate

Subscribe!
Subscribe





On Line Opinion is a not-for-profit publication and relies on the generosity of its sponsors, editors and contributors. If you would like to help, contact us.
___________

Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Pope issues forceful environmental message

By Mick Sullivan - posted Thursday, 24 December 2009


Pope 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 titled If you want to cultivate peace, work for creation. It is his annual message for the World Day of Peace.

The World Day of Peace is an observance launched by the Catholic Church under Pope Paul VI in 1967. The day is actually celebrated on January 1, but the Vatican released the message December 15.

Advertisement

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 the Pope identified as an urgent moral priority.

The Pope’s language is 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.”

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.

Advertisement

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; and
  • progressive disarmament, including “a world free of nuclear weapons”.

While saying that primary responsibility for taking action must fall to wealthy industrialised 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.)

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. All


Discuss in our Forums

See what other readers are saying about this article!

Click here to read & post comments.

40 posts so far.

Share this:
reddit this reddit thisbookmark with del.icio.us Del.icio.usdigg thisseed newsvineSeed NewsvineStumbleUpon StumbleUponsubmit to propellerkwoff it

About the Author

Mick Sullivan is a former member of the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission - both Archdiocese of Brisbane and, earlier, Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn.

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Article Tools
Comment 40 comments
Print Printable version
Subscribe Subscribe
Email Email a friend
Advertisement

About Us Search Discuss Feedback Legals Privacy