By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist

Pope Benedict XVI’s message for the 43rd World Day of Peace, to be celebrated January 1, 2010, encourages lifestyles marked by “sobriety and solidarity,” warns about eco-fanaticism opening up a “new pantheism tinged with neopaganism” and calls for an acknowledgement of the “indivisible relationship between God, human beings and the whole of creation.”

In his message entitled, “If You Want to Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation,” the pope says the Church “has a responsibility towards creation, and she considers it her duty to exercise that responsibility in public life, in order to protect earth, water and air as gifts of God the Creator meant for everyone, and above all to save mankind from the danger of self-destruction. Our duties towards the environment flow from our duties towards the person, considered both individually and in relation to others.”

After citing “man’s inhumanity to man” such as wars, terrorism and violations of human rights, all of which have brought numerous threats to peace and authentic human development, the pope says threats to the environment are no less troubling.

“Can we remain indifferent before the problems associated with such realities as climate change, desertification, the deterioration and loss of productivity in vast agricultural areas, the pollution of rivers and aquifers, the loss of biodiversity, the increase of natural catastrophes and the deforestation of equatorial and tropical regions?” he asks.

“Can we disregard the growing phenomenon of ‘environmental refugees’, people who are forced by the degradation of their natural habitat to forsake it – and often their possessions as well – in order to face the dangers and uncertainties of forced displacement? Can we remain impassive in the face of actual and potential conflicts involving access to natural resources? All these are issues with a profound impact on the exercise of human rights, such as the right to life, food, health and development.”

However, the ecological crisis cannot be viewed in isolation from the notion of development itself and our understanding of man in his relationship to others and to the rest of creation, he says. Prudence dictates a need for a “profound” review of models of development, one that would take into consideration the meaning of the economy and its goals and correct its “malfunctions and misapplications.”

“The ecological health of the planet calls for this, but it is also demanded by the cultural and moral crisis of humanity whose symptoms have for some time been evident in every part of the world.”
 
Environmental degradation is often due to the lack of far-sighted official policies or to the pursuit of myopic economic interests, he says, all of which can become a serious threat to creation.

He also calls for a new intra-generational solidarity between developing and industrialized countries. “This would be accomplished more easily if self-interest played a lesser role in the granting of aid and the sharing of knowledge and cleaner technologies,” he says.

In order to satisfy the energy needs of present and future generations, “advanced societies must be prepared to encourage more sober lifestyles, while reducing their energy consumption and improving its efficiency. At the same time there is a need to encourage research into, and utilisation of, forms of energy with lower impact on the environment and ‘a worldwide redistribution of energy resources, so that countries lacking those resources can have access to them’.”

However, there is a need to “move beyond a purely consumerist mentality in order to promote forms of agricultural and industrial production capable of respecting creation and satisfying the primary needs of all,” he said.

The real motivation for the ecological problem must be “the quest for authentic worldwide solidarity inspired by the values of charity, justice and the common good.”

This means everyone must do their share in protecting and caring for the environment, including the Church, whose duty it is to “forcefully reaffirm the inviolability of human life at every stage and in every condition, the dignity of the person and the unique mission of the family, where one is trained in love of neighbour and respect for nature.”

He also warns about becoming a fanatic in regard to the environment because eco-centrism and bio-centrism “eliminate the difference of identity and worth between the human person and other living things,” he says.

In the name of a supposedly egalitarian vision of the ‘dignity’ of all living creatures, such notions end up abolishing the distinctiveness and superior role of human beings. They also open the way to a new pantheism tinged with neo-paganism, which would see the source of man’s salvation in nature alone, understood in purely naturalistic terms.”

He concludes: “If you want to cultivate peace, protect creation. The quest for peace by people of good will surely would become easier if all acknowledge the indivisible relationship between God, human beings and the whole of creation.”

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