Pope's Plea for the Environment

In a Christmas Mass attended by thousands, the pope made a plea for the environment. (See excerpt of New York Times story below):

On the day Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ some 2,000 years ago, Benedict referred to one early father of the church, Gregory of Nyssa, a bishop in what is now Turkey. “What would he say if he could see the state of the world today, through the abuse of energy and its selfish and reckless exploitation?” the pope asked, according to the Vatican’s English translation.
He expanded on the theme briefly by saying that an 11th-century theologian, Anselm of Canterbury, had spoken “in an almost prophetic way” as he “described a vision of what we witness today as a polluted world whose future is at risk.”
In recent months, Benedict has spoken out increasingly about environmental concerns, and the Vatican has even purchased “carbon offsets,” credits on the global market to compensate for carbon dioxide emissions, for the energy consumed in the world’s smallest state, Vatican City.

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Pope: Climate Change Harms Vulnerable

Here is the article, as it appeared in Monsters and Critics:

In a world whose resources should be universal, climate change tends to damage the weakest the most, Pope Benedict XVI told experts taking part in an international conference on the environment taking place at the Vatican on Thursday and Friday.
In a message to participants, the pontiff also said it was his hope that the conference would help promote lifestyles and modes of production that respect 'creation' and 'sustainable development,' in line with the teachings of the Church.
Some 80 experts from 20 countries were taking part in a conference on 'climate change and development' organized by the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

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Green Faith: Good News on the Environment

Roger Gottlieb, last year's keynote speaker at our annual Sacred Trust Forum, has a long, thoughtful, and fact-filled commentary about the intersection of faith and the environment on emagazine.com. Here is an excerpt:

For many, the importance of religious environmentalism goes beyond local church members joining the Sierra Club or starting a recycling center. Ecotheologians argue that a religious vision brings something distinct and very valuable to the secular environmental movement. For one thing, when secular environmentalists rail at out-of-control unsus-tainable consumerism they often come off sounding like shrill spoilsports. “Buy less,” may be a good idea, but it is not, in and of itself, all that appealing. Religious leaders can point to the simple (and comparatively non-polluting) pleasures of religious community as alternatives to consumerism. The joys of Sabbath rest, or the emotional comfort of a familiar congregation, provide replacements for the mall and Amazon.com. Of course one need not be religious to appreciate the nurturing aspects of community and rest. Yet these values are perhaps most familiar to us as presented by a culture of religion which, as writer Bill McKibben puts it, offers something other than accumulation as the highest goal of life.

There is also a deep seriousness in religious language, a seriousness which, for many environmentalists, speaks to the depth of the environmental crisis at hand. When we learn, for instance, that the placental blood of newborns contains 287 toxic chemicals, many are not comfortable just saying that this is unhealthy, inconvenient or a damn shame. The violation of what should be a human being’s safest place calls forth a more powerful, more visceral, response. In this context most people find a language of rights inadequate, and one of “consumer preferences” patently absurd. And thus there is something appealing, even to many secular people, when Bartholomew, head of the 300 million strong Eastern Orthodox Church, states flatly that “To pollute the environment is a sin.”

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Pope Touts "Ecology of Peace"

Here is an excerpt from the New York Times article:

In an annual message for peace, Benedict strongly emphasized a theme rarely taken up in his nearly two years as pope: what he called the “ecology of peace,” the idea that protecting the environment and finding alternative energy sources could reduce conflict.
“In recent years, new nations have entered enthusiastically into industrial production, thereby increasing their energy needs,” the pope wrote in a 14-page address. “Meanwhile, some parts of the planet remain backward and development is effectively blocked, partly because of the rise in energy prices.
“What will happen to these peoples?” he asked. “What injustices and conflicts will be provoked by the race for energy sources?”

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