By Leela Ramdeen, Chair of the Catholic Commission for Social Justice
Today I continue to focus on environmental issues in the lead up to the UN Climate Change Conference to be held in Copenhagen in December. One of the most profound statements made by Pope Benedict XVI in his encyclical, Charity in Truth, is that “Nature is at our disposal not as a ‘heap of scattered refuse’, but as a gift of the Creator who has given it an inbuilt order, enabling man to draw from it the principles needed in order ‘to till it and keep it’ (Gen 2:15)…
“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. It is destined to be “recapitulated” in Christ at the end of time (cf. Eph 1:9-10; Col 1:19-20). Thus it too is a “vocation”.
But the Holy Father stresses that “it is contrary to authentic development to view nature as something more important than the human person. This position leads to attitudes of neo-paganism or a new pantheism — human salvation cannot come from nature alone, understood in a purely naturalistic sense. This having been said, it is also necessary to reject the opposite position, which aims at total technical dominion over nature, because the natural environment is more than raw material to be manipulated at our pleasure; it is a wondrous work of the Creator containing a “grammar” which sets forth ends and criteria for its wise use, not its reckless exploitation.
“Today much harm is done to development precisely as a result of these distorted notions. 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. Our nature, constituted not only by matter but also by spirit, and as such, endowed with transcendent meaning and aspirations, is also normative for culture.
“Human beings interpret and shape the natural environment through culture, which in turn is given direction by the responsible use of freedom, in accordance with the dictates of the moral law. Consequently, projects for integral human development cannot ignore coming generations, but need to be marked by solidarity and inter-generational justice, while taking into account a variety of contexts: ecological, juridical, economic, political and cultural.”
I was pleased to read that at last week’s post-Cabinet news Conference, Environment Minister Hon. Emily Dick-Forde, said that since it seems unlikely that there will be an agreement in Copenhagen, discussions are taking place for more space to be allotted to the issue of climate change at the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (27-29 November). I understand that a statement will be made by our Government at the meeting “to give some more life and more hope for the meeting in Copenhagen in December.”(Minister Emily Dick-Forde).
There is a sense of urgency; a concern to ensure that those who will meet in Copenhagen will open their hearts and minds to do what is right for our planet. The US Bishops said: “We … call for a civil dialogue and prudent and constructive action to protect God’s precious gift of the earth’s atmosphere with a sense of genuine solidarity and justice for all God’s children.”
Synod resolutions mandate CCSJ to educate the faithful about social justice issues. We have devised a number of strategies to achieve our goals e.g. providing you with links to useful reports that will raise your awareness of the Church’s stance on various issues. Please read the Antilles Episcopal Conference of Bishops’ 2005 Pastoral letter: Caring for the Earth – Our responsibility, on: www.aecrc.org . Our own Archbishop, Edward J. Gilbert C.Ss.R., contributed to this excellent document.
A number of international humanitarian organizations are voicing their concerns about climate change. You will have read in last week’s Catholic News about action taken by Caritas Internationalis, the umbrella organization for 164 Catholic charities. Read their thought-provoking report on Climate change, food insecurity and hunger (http://www.caritas.org). Currently more than 1 billion people worldwide suffer from lack of food. Caritas says that climate change will multiply “existing threats to food security” and increase world hunger.
Read also the report on Development and Climate Change by CIDSE (http://www.cidse.org) “an international network of Catholic development agencies working for over 40 years with people living in poverty on every continent”. CIDSE is “deeply concerned by the disproportionate impact human-induced climate change has on poor and vulnerable people who live in developing countries, a global problem they have done the least to create.” They say that “Climate change is washing away progress made in poverty reduction and progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals. It is crucial that we begin to address climate change from a people-centred and development perspective.”
Last Friday the world marked Universal Children’s Day. We owe it to the children of the world to build a better tomorrow for them – today.
