Bible Verse On The Environment And The Poor
“Now this was their sin... they were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.”
Ezekiel 16:49
“Now this was their sin... they were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.”
Ezekiel 16:49
TOP POPES’ QUOTES ON HUMAN ECOLOGY
“Experience shows that disregard for the environment always harms human coexistence, and vice versa.
It becomes more and more evident that there is an inseparable link between peace with creation and peace among men.”
Pope Benedict 16th, “The Garden of God”, CUA Press, 2014, p.14.
Alfred E. Baldacchino, makes a point on the importance of indigenous and endemic species and the concerns associated with introducing alien species in a country. This article refers particularly to the biodiversity of Malta.
Alfred believes that landscaping streets needs to be combined with respect for the local wildlife and ecosystem. He mentions examples from other countries: “Australia and New Zealand spray each plane that lands to control the introduction of alien insects from being accidentally introduced in their country. They have learned their lesson hard after Europeans introduced foreign species which brought havoc to their indigenous biodiversity. England is spending billions to control the negative impacts of invasive species. What can we learn from them?”
Pope Francis, in his letter On Care for Our Common Home also echoes this thinking when he said that some profits cause “terrible injustices, much greater than the economic benefit to be obtained,”. He also dedicates thirteen paragraphs (24, 32-42, 169, 190) of this letter on the value and protection of biodiversity.
The environment has had a special place in the Catholic Social Teaching of the Church since the 1970s. In the more recent years, Pope Francis, with frankness and freshness, invites all Christians to an environmental conversion, by improving our relationships with other creatures and the world, also in view of the needs of the socially excluded and the poor, who are mentioned 61 times in his encyclical On Care For Our Common Home.
Besides nature and the environment, the Church also speaks in a wider sense about the word “creation”. While nature is usually seen as a system which can be studied, understood and controlled, creation is understood as a gift. “Every creature is thus the object of the Father’s tenderness, who gives it its place in the world. Even the fleeting life of the least of beings is the object of his love, and in its few seconds of existence, God enfolds it with his affection.”
In the same letter On Care For Our Common Home, the Pope states that "the destruction of the human environment is extremely serious". Thus he addresses "every person living on this planet" to reflect on how society is being controlled and what place does the human being have in the world; "I propose that we focus on the dominant technocratic paradigm and the place of human beings and of human action in the world." The response would be an integral ecology which "includes taking time to recover a serene harmony with creation, reflecting on our lifestyle and our ideals, and contemplating the Creator who lives among us and surrounds us".
Further reading:
- Website: On Care For Our Common Home
- Website: Global Catholic Climate Movement
- Website: Theology Against Land Grabbing, Sr Pat Fox
- Website: ZERI Zero Emmissions Research and Initiatives
- Book: Introduction to Permaculture, Mollison Bill, 1991.
- Book: The One-Straw Revolution, Fukuolka Masanobu, 1978.
“The rainstorm and the river are my brothers
