Pope on Peace: Care for environment is key

“If you want to cultivate peace, protect creation,” writes Pope Benedict XVI in his message for the World Day of Peace.

The World Day of Peace is observed each year on January 1.

 “Our duties towards the environment flow from our duties towards the person,” the Pope writes. He explains that the degradation of the environment jeopardizes the welfare of the poor and especially of future generations. “A greater sense of inter-generational solidarity is urgently needed,” the Pope says. Warning that a lack of concern for the stewardship of creation is causing damage to the environment, the Holy Father points to “signs of a growing crisis which it would be irresponsible not to take seriously.” He writes:

    Prudence would thus dictate a profound, long-term review of our model of development, one which would take into consideration the meaning of the economy and its goals with an eye to correcting 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.

The Pope cites several problems are evidence of a growing need to address environmental concerns: pollution and deforestation, the aggressive exploitation of natural resources found in impoverished countries, the conflict that have arisen over control of those resources, the spread of untrammeled consumerism, the appearance of “environmental refugees” who leave their homes to escape a degraded habitat. These problems, he said, are “ultimately also moral crises, and all of them are interrelated.”

     Click on the headline to see full text of Pope’s message.