Pope Benedict's latest encyclical (Caritas in veritate) is focused on issues of social justice in our time. In that encyclical, the pope clearly connects environmental issues to social justice. He states:
"The environment is God's gift to everyone, and in our use of it we have a responsibility towards the poor, towards future generations and towards humanity as a whole... In nature, the believer recognizes the wonderful result of God's creative activity, which we may use responsibly to satisfy our legitimate needs, material or otherwise, while respecting the intrinsic balance of creation. If this vision is lost, we end up either considering nature an untouchable taboo or, on the contrary, abusing it. Neither attitude is consonant with the Christian vision of nature as the fruit of God's creation. Nature expresses a design of love and truth. It is prior to us, and it has been given to us by God as the setting for our life. Nature speaks to us of the Creator (cf. Rom 1:20) and his love for humanity... Reducing nature merely to a collection of contingent data ends up doing violence to the environment and even encouraging activity that fails to respect human nature itself."*
For more information, go to www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/index.htm and click on "Encyclicals" and then on "Caritas in veritate."
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* Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in veritate, no. 48.
Copyright © 2009, Deacon Carl D. Smith. All rights reserved. Reprint permission granted to parishes for use in Sunday bulletins.
