If only all environmental ideologues were as balanced as Benedict XVI in promoting respect for the environment without undue apocalyptic alarmism - which is most probably quite unwarranted on scientific grounds, and criminally reprehensible if junk science forces the world into unnecessarily draconian measures... Prudent action now, yes, by all means, but it must be reasonable and measured, not cause unacceptable economic burdens to those who can least afford it, or even to the middle class who usually bear the tax burden for any new initiative.
But then, they are ideologues, who are robots totally controlled by their ideology, whereas Benedict XVI is a genuine thinking man, and better still, an exemplary Christian. Luigi Accattoli reflects on the Christian ecology of Benedict XVI.
Papa Ratzinger's many urgings
for mutually supportive development
The Pope in defense of Earth, God's masterwork -
but the Church's ecological calling is not recent!
by Luigi Accattoli
Translated from
Dec. 10, 2009
Last Sunday the Pope called on the climate-change summit in Copenhagen to decide in favor of initiatives that are "respectful of Creation and which will promote mutually supportive development".
"Safeguarding Creation" - he said, using an expression that was formulated more than 30 years ago in German ecumenical circles - "postulates the adoption of moderate and responsible life styles, especially with respect to the poor and to future generations."
We have an ecologically-minded Pope who insists on respect for Creation even if it seems few are heeding him, at least on this issue, both within and outside the Church.
Once before, despite his reluctance for any kind of protagonism, he had come to advocating a Christian-Catholic movement: "I call on you to pray and work with me towards greater respect for the wonders of God's creation", he said on Sept. 5, 2007.
The necessity to promote "responsible governance of nature" is advocated in his encyclical
Caritas in veritate from last July, in which he lists 'safeguarding the environment' among the reasons that should convince mankind to consider 'a global political authority with supranational powers'.
Perhaps, he expressed himself on the issue most forcefully to a massive youth assembly in Loreto in September 2007: "Before it is too late, courageous choices must be made to recreate a strong alliance between man and the earth".
Also that month, on a pastoral visit to Velletri, he said that "the logic of profit, if it prevails, increases the disproportionate gap between rich and poor, as well as ruinous exploitation of the planet".
This Pope's truly extraordinary attention to ecological issues has influenced the diplomatic activity of the Holy See, which is present in Copenhagen with a delegation led by Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Vatican's permanent observer at the United Nations.
Outside the UN environment, bishops and representatives of humanitarian agencies from 25 countries have teamed up to advocate 'climate justice' in Copenhagen.
Many Catholics are also adherents of the Bell Ringing campaign proposed by the Council of Danish Churches, with the support of the World Council of Churches: on Sunday, when the Copenhagen conference is midway through, at 3 p.m. Copenhagen time, all the bells in the churches taking part in the campaign will ring everywhere - around the world, they say - to ask for concrete decisions.
[A good momentary attention-getter and an appropriate gesture for churches, but sort of out of touch with the pre-programmed realities of all international gatherings these days - namely, that conferences are simply a way to allow everyone to blow off their hot air on the world stage, since the powers that run these conferences already know that the final conference communique will say.
The participants in Copenhagen knew going in that the conference would result in nothing better than a consensus on intentions, given that the two most populous nations on earth, who account for one-third of the world's population, have said they will set their own voluntary measures to control greenhouse gas emissions and will not be bound by anything the other nations may agree on.]
To understand the Holy Father's position, here is what deputy secretary of state Mons. Pietro Parolin said at the United Nations in September 2007 on the challenge posed by global climate changes.
He presented the Vatican stand as a third way between radical environmentalism
[but these are the ones who completely control the Copenhagen conference!] and a denial of the ecological problem, advocating the adoption of a coordinated political strategy that is agile, effective and capable of dealing with such a complex problem" that would also bear "the economic costs for the negative consequences of climate change on poor nations"
[about which data is so far insufficient and inconclusive].
Attention to the environment is not new in papal teaching. In 1979, John Paul II declared Francis of Assisi as the patron saint of ecology, and he dealt with the issue many times. In the 1991 social encyclical
Centesimus Annus, he affirmed the concept of 'human ecology' (Par. 38).
This concept has been developed by Papa Ratzinger who discusses it in his last encyclical.
In a message on May 1, 2007, to the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, he said that human ecology "demands a responsible relationship not only with Creation but even with our neighbor, far and near in space and time, and with the Creator".
It is striking to find this insistence on ecological responsibility for a Pope who normally draws back from adopting the fashionable issues that occupy media and the public discourse.
But basic to his passion is the desire to give voice to the need for clean air and potable water for the poorest, least cared for persons in society today - who are in no way represented by the environmental ideologs.
But I think there are also cultural reasons that motivate him personally. The ecological movement was born in his own Germany, to begin with. But it is also an issue that allows a recovery of Biblical and Christian motivations (think of Franciscanism) capable of refuting the attacks of radical ecologists on the Judaeo-Christian tradition.
Finally, he is aware that Christian teaching cannot ignore the ecological issue which highlights the relationship between man, the cosmos and history - moved by the primary concern that in dealing with the issue, the fourth and most 'ranking' protagonist of all, God, should never be forgotten.
"If God is absent," he said last Nov.8, in a message to the bishops of Italy, "there is no compass to find the way along which to proceed".
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 12/12/2009 02:57]