Posted on 12/15/2009 8:16:38 AM PST by Pyro7480
Pope Benedict XVI called for urgent action to protect the environment, saying Tuesday that climate change and natural catastrophes threaten the rights to life, food, health — and ultimately peace.
In his annual message on the Roman Catholic Church's World Day of Peace, the pope argued that the world's economic, social, and environmental problems are moral crises that require mankind to rethink its way of living.
"We can no longer do without a real change of outlook which will result in new life-styles," he said, touching again on a theme that has earned him a reputation as the "green pope."...
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
From Excerpts from Message for World Day of Peace
In accordance with the principle of subsidiarity it is important for everyone to be committed at his or her proper level, working to overcome the prevalence of particular interests. A special role in raising awareness and in formation belongs to the different groups present in civil society and to the non-governmental organisations which work with determination and generosity for the spread of ecological responsibility, responsibility which should be ever more deeply anchored in respect for "human ecology".
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. Hence I readily encourage efforts to promote a greater sense of ecological responsibility which, as I indicated in my Encyclical "Caritas in Veritate", would safeguard an authentic "human ecology" and thus 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.
On the other hand, a correct understanding of the relationship between man and the environment will not end by absolutising nature or by considering it more important than the human person. If the Church's Magisterium expresses grave misgivings about notions of the environment inspired by eco-centrism and bio-centrism, it is because such notions eliminate the difference of identity and worth between the human person and other living things. 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.
Catholic ping!
He should go on to say, that voting for pro abortion/pro choice politicians (no difference btw) that you do not have the Spirit of Christ within you.
He will not say that however, because he is afraid many will leave the Church, meaning less money in the coffers.
Please read the entire thing, if you haven’t.
I’d be curious to read the whole article, but it certainly looks as if AP is distorting it in typical fashion.
I would imagine that the Pope is saying that humans come first. I.e., you can’t abort babies by the millions and control population with brutal laws because you think it’s the “green” thing to do.
Second, he is presumably saying that, as suggested in Genesis and elsewhere, human beings are stewards of nature or of the environment, and should treat it accordingly. God put us in charge of the lower orders, but a good king or steward works for the welfare of those with whom he is charged.
Any good conservative should be an environmentalist. It’s just that we have to care for nature wisely, and without getting fooled by every silly, fashionable leftist idiocy that comes down the pike.
What's the point of the successor to Peter wallowing about in the sty with the swine who despise Christianity?
As with the past encyclical this one is larded with newspeak!
I meant not the whole AP article, but the Pope’s entire statement, which may have been selectively cut.
No one has the right to food. You have the right to buy food, grow food, borrow food, beg for food, grow your own food, kill your own food, work for food, trade your property, goods, services and/or time for food.
But no one has the right TO food. No one has the right to walk into a supermarket, restaurant or someone else' home anfd help them selves to food that isn't theirs.
So - is this “God’s Will” being spoken by the Pontiff? Will this become a teaching of the Sacred Magisterium?
Or is the Pope just late jumping on the PC lie train?
Gives me such bold confidence...
Any good German should support der Fuehrer. See where this kind of thinking leads?
Environmentalism is fraud. The Catholic Church is fraud. God put us in charge of the environment? Hmmm seems the rest of the universe is doing very well without our help. After humans are extinct, and earth carries on for several billion more years, it won't make a scintilla of difference what happened while humans were on the planet.
Yeah, when you're worldview is materialist and secularist like the rest of the leftists, why bother being "conservative"?
The encyclical is magnificent; Green Patriarch and now the Green Pope. Here’s a link to the letter:
The Pope should make short non-technical statements that leave little room to distort and pick and choose.
The 1930’s Southern Agrarians lived too soon.
As a country boy who has experienced the cruelty of fellow human beings (the cruelest animal), I've always had to struggle against a temptation to John Muir-style mysanthropy/nature worship. Of course, now that I realize where electricity comes from and how prices work, this is no longer as great a problem as it used to be!
Still, I agree. All who acknowledge G-d should have a love for the creatures He has created for us. The "if it's green, pave it; it it moves, kill it" mentality, while perhaps satisfying in moments of extreme tension, is really irresponsible.
I remain a country boy. We feed raccoons on our back porch. The mother's name is Esmerelda.
Heck, the older I’ve gotten (I’m 29), I’ve become more of an old-school “traditionalist” conservative in the vein of Russell Kirk and J.R.R. Tolkien. The Southern Agrarians would fall in that camp.
You'll get my computer, my cable box, and my electricity when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers!
How else am I gonna watch cartoons?
The Final Word on Global Warming;
Gen 8:22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
God runs the show, not man.
I remain a country boy.
Despite our profound theological differences, I have a whole lot of respect for that. I grew up in moderately-sized city (Wilmington, DE), which is right smack in between DC and NYC, but there were forests and pastoral scenes very close to my home, and my neighborhood had a small town feel to it. I identify more with the country. I must take after my maternal grandfather, who grew up on a farm. I just don't like all those barnyard smells. ;-)
LOL! I’m with you there! I’m a big cartoon fan myself. See, we have more in common than we thought!
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