CatholicNews ■ Sundays June 6 and June 13, 2004
“God destined the earth and all it contains for the use of every individual and all peoples”.
WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY
PEACE WITH ALL OF CREATION
“All creatures wild and tame,
O bless the Lord
Every plant that grows,
O bless the Lord
Seas and rivers,
O bless the Lord
Let the earth bless the Lord
To him be glory and praise
forever”
From the Canticle of Daniel
JUNE 5 is World Environment
Day, a day dedicated to creating
awareness of ecological issues.
In this special report to mark the
day, CN looks at church
teachings on ecology, some of
the environmenal problems, how
some Singapore Catholics are
caring for and nurturing the
earth and how each of us can
and must make a difference.
Pope John Paul has said that
even men and women without
any particular religious
conviction, but with an acute
sense of their responsibilities for
the common good, recognize
their obligation to contribute to
the restoration of a healthy
environment.
All the more should men and
women who believe in God the
Creator, and who are thus
convinced that there is a well-
defined unity and order in the
world, feel called to address the
problem.
Christians, in particular,
realize that their responsibility
within creation and their duty
towards nature and the Creator
are an essential part of their
faith. ■
Environment important issue for Christianity
By Tracy Early
NEW YORK – Concern for the
environment is “not just one
more issue in a string of good
causes” for Christians but a
basic part of their belief, a
professor at Fordham University
told a symposium on “The
Abrahamic Religions and the
Environmental Crisis.”
Speaking May 11 at the
Interfaith Center of New York,
Sister Elizabeth A. Johnson said
“simple earthy things” such as
bread and wine could become
sacramental bearers of grace
because the world with all its
creatures “is the primordial
sacrament.”
The earth is “charged with
the grandeur of God,” she said,
quoting the English Jesuit poet
Father Gerard Manley Hopkins.
“Seen in this light, the
goodness, beauty and holiness
ONE of nature’s beauties – a blue pansy butterfly – rests on a twig. Photo by Khew Sin Khoon
“And God saw that it was good”
In the Book of Genesis, where we
find God’s first self-revelation to
humanity (Gen 1-3), there is a
recurring refrain: “And God saw
that it was good”.
God entrusted the whole of
creation to the man and woman,
and only then could he rest “from
all his work” (Gen 2:3).
Made in the image and likeness
of God, Adam and Eve were to have
exercised their dominion over the
earth (Gen 1:28) with wisdom and
love. Instead, they destroyed the
existing harmony by deliberately
going against the Creator’s plan.
Christians believe that the Death
and Resurrection of Christ
of creation that attracts our
ecological care then becomes an
intrinsic part of Christian belief,
not something added on,” she
said.
The event was sponsored by
the Harvard Forum on Religion
and Ecology, a programme led
by a Catholic couple, Mary
Evelyn Tucker and John Grim,
who teach at Bucknell
University in Lewisburg, Pa.
They organized the
symposium to spotlight the
Jewish, Christian and Islamic
volumes in a series of books
produced after the couple initiated
the convening of 10 conferences
between 1996 and 1998 on the
relation of ecology to 10 of the
world’s religious traditions.
Sister Johnson, a former
president of the Catholic
Theological Society of America,
said the volume on “Christianity
and Ecology” showed in a
9
CNS PHOTO
POPE John Paul II walks
through a wooded area in the
Dolomite mountains of
northern Italy. The pontiff
has a great love for nature.
THERE is an order in the universe
which must be respected, and we
have a grave responsibility to
preserve this order for the well-
being of future generations, said
“Our
accomplished the work of Pope John Paul II.
reconciling humanity to the Father, contact Although the pope made that
who “was pleased ... through with statement in 1990, it is just as
(Christ) to reconcile to himself all nature true today.
things, whether on earth or in has a deep Speaking at a time of concern
heaven” (Col 1:19-20). Creation restorative power; over depletion of the ozone layer
was thus made new (cf. Rev 21:5). contemplation of and greenhouse effect, of wasteful
These biblical considerations consumption by some and
its magnificence
help us to understand better the destructive ecological practices
imparts peace and
relationship between human activity arising from greed or desperate
serenity.
and the whole of creation. need, he stressed that the
The Bible speaks
If man is not at peace with God, ecological crisis is a moral issue.
again and again of
then earth itself cannot be at peace: “We cannot interfere in one
“Therefore the land mourns and all the goodness and area of the ecosystem without
who dwell in it languish, and also the beauty of creation, paying due attention both to the
beasts of the field and the birds of the which is called to consequences of such interference
air and even the fish of the sea are glorify God.” in other areas and to the well-being
taken away” (Hos 4:3). ■ CNS of future generations,” he said.
– Pope John Paul II
“The concepts of an ordered
universe and a common heritage
both point to the necessity of a
more internationally coordinated
approach to the management of
the earth’s goods”, the alleviation
scholarly way how ecology was Christians tended to focus on the of poverty and changes in
connected with “the heart of cross as the means for their consumption patterns.
what people really believe, with salvation from sin the biblical The pope’s full message titled
the way they actually pray and vision was greater and saw it as “Peace with God the Creator,
practice their religion.” “the great act of redemption not peace with all of creation” can be
According to the doctrine of just for humanity but for the downloaded at www.vatican.va.
creation, God calls the created whole cosmos.” ■
heavens and earth good, and the Turning to the resurrection of
divine Spirit continues to dwell Christ, she said it was a “pledge
“within the world, enlivening of the same future for the whole “We can never throw
it,” she said. “God is at home world.” The future will be “what anything “away” because
here, as are we.” has already happened to him” but there is no such place as
In reference to the doctrine “on a cosmic scale,” she said.
of incarnation, Sister Johnson Sister Johnson also said the
“away.” There is only one
said God was “no longer Christian doctrine of universe – home to us all.
satisfied to be with us in word eschatology included the This realization could be the
and Spirit only, but becomes one teaching that “Earth will be underlying principle for
of us in the flesh.” renewed,” and that the Creator conservation, the wise use
The ministry of Jesus includes spirit was “coming to reconcile
and reuse of man-made
“feeding hungry bodies and laying and redeem the whole creation.”
on hands to heal,” as well as The ethical implication things and the potential harm
teaching “salted with references to broadens from love of of excessive productivity and
the lilies of the field, the birds of neighbour, she said, “to include accumulation.”
the air, sunsets, storms, lost sheep the whole community of life and
and mother hens,” she said. the ecosystems that make life – Aline D. Wolf,
Sister Johnson said that while possible on the planet.” ■ CNS author of Nuturing the Spirit