Pope Benedict spoke to an estimated 300,000 young Catholics yesterday in Loreto, Italy, at a weekend festival designed to reinvigorate Italian Catholic youth. The event had a decidedly eco-friendly theme, and participants were handed, among other things, prayer books made of recycled paper and flashlights powered with a hand crank rather than a battery. Color coded trash bags reminded participants that the Adriatic coastal hill hosting the large gathering needs to be trash free following the event, as other Catholic youth gatherings in the past have failed in that area.
Benedict stated that world leaders must make courageous decisions to save the planet "before it is too late". Intentionally wearing green vestments, he celebrated "Save Creation Day".
The Catholic church has actually taken a few halting steps in this area in recent years, starting with Benedict's predecessor John Paul. There are photovoltaic cells to collect solar energy on the roofs of a few Vatican buildings, and there was one scientific conference hosted which discussed gloal warming among other things. Clearly the current Catholic leadership interprets the famous portion of the Book of Genesis granting man "dominion" over the natural world as something less than a blank check. Yes you are in charge, implies Benedict, but that does not entitle you to trash what God has made.
Well, I'll take it. In the interest of honesty I will admit that I am not Catholic although I was raised to become one. I am an atheist. But as a member of the save the planet team, I will take friends where I can get them. It should be noted that, like all large and time honored institutions, the Catholic Church has a few paradoxes on the "Green" issue. One of the paradoxes is a policy firmly opposed to any use of contraception to support family planning. Tell me please how we can save sensitive and stressed regions of nature while continuing to flood those regions with desperate, starving people? Well, maybe it is impolite to ask such questions at such a time. Thanks, Benedict, for taking step one. Please keep walking, because you have many miles to go. This criticism goes double for the Evangelical community in America. A new generation led by Richard Cizik is trying to make up for 30 years of silence, but the old guard of Dobson and Robertson basically seem to believe that God created SUVs.
recommend this
email
print
link to this page
Comments: 10
That said, I admire him for taking on the issue. I am not religious, but believe this is something all religious leaders should take on --- since it is an issue we all should be concerned with.
Not to get on too high a political pulpit, but I think that the conservatives have a mixed message. People are not suppose to depend on government to take care of individuals, but I don't see the CEO's of the world moving to be 'green' which would be individuals taking care of individuals.
Instead (for the most part) the corporate world spend time and money avoiding making the world a healthier place.
The anti-modernist theologizing of the 19th and 20th centuries (papal infallibility, bodily assumption of the Virgin Mary, human life begins at conception) are all errors that have arisen because the Roman Church regards itself as the universal Church.
If there was a true ecumenical council, we would have better theology.
It was actually better in the 13th Century.
well, I will concede happily that the Catholic church has a millstone around its neck in their conviction that science is okay up to the point that science disagrees with religion, and at that point science needs to be defenestrated. Sadly they have not outgrown that mode of thought, which saddled them with refusing to accept Galileo's discoveries for a century or two. As an atheist and a believer in the power of science to show us the road to survival, I have no great need to praise them in this area.
The real question with Catholics and the environment is "what next?" Benedict is 80 years old, he was just a stop gap figure to express the caution and conservatism of all those Cardenals that John Paul signed up. After Benedict, if we get more of the same backward thinking it will be time to admit that Catholicism is going to remain part of the problem rather than the solution.
And, like you, I think overpopulation is a huge problem in the world.
I did not know that 13th Century saints, however wise and just, were commenting on current Catholic practices.
Has the Vatican been informed?
The right-wing can be said to be literalists, and the left-wing are spiritualists. On the extreme far left are the PETA (people for the ethical treatment of animals) people, who have an extreme view on the spirituality of all living things.
Most political attacks have been to paint a politician as being too far to the right, with no self-doubt, or too far to the left, with a tree-hugger label.
yes, those labels are a reality of contemporary religion-in-politics. Among the positions of Catholicism are anti abortion, and people notice that position. Another one is ending the death penalty, which especially in Right wing circles is totally ignored. When I say that I welcome the idea of the catholic leadership standing up for environmental values I do sinceely mean that. But I would like them to point at prevailing science and simply say "do like he said"- and I don't see them willing to do that. More likely it would be pick and choose, like yes to global warming science but no to using contraception.
I have always found Ralph Nader, and the Green party to be a strange, evangelical, hybrid in that respect.
I enjoyed Peter Wimsey's remark about King Louis.