I put this article in my parish's bulletin to underscore how deeply concerned the Vatican is regarding the environment and the poorest among us. Those without resources are always hit hardest by environmental problems.
Pope Benedict urged all people to remember the duty we have today to safeguard the future for generations to come. Speaking in support of the Day for Safeguarding Creation (a tradition in Italy and in the Greek Orthodox Church), the Holy Father said, “There can be no peace in the world without respecting the environment.” Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople echoed these sentiments, calling efforts to address the environmental crisis, “This titanic and just fight.”
Read more at the Catholic News Service website for August 30th: http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1003496.htm
Here is the Vatican website with the Pope's full address:
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2009/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20090826_en.html
"Charity in Truth" is a very readable document especially for those interested in economics, justice, and human development.
You can download and print the document from the Vatican website: <http://capwiz.com/cacatholic/utr/1/NKSYKVONIB/IYJOKVPZVA/3631167291> .
The letter has a great many subtleties and nuances than cannot be appreciated with a few selected quotes. With that caution, here are a few highlights to consider:
*"If we love others with charity, then first of all we are just toward them." (6)
*"A society lacks solid foundations when, on the one hand, it asserts values such as the dignity of the person, justice and peace, but then, on the other hand, radically acts to the contrary by allowing or tolerating a variety of ways in which human life is devalued and violated, especially where it is weak or marginalized." (15)
*"Profit is useful if it serves as a means towards an end...Once profit becomes the exclusive goal...without the common good as its ultimate end, it risks destroying wealth and creating poverty." (21)
*"Openness to life is at the center of true development." (28)
*"Solidarity is first and foremost a sense of responsibility on the part of everyone with regard to everyone, and it cannot therefore be merely delegated to the State." (38)
*"Many people today would claim that they owe nothing to anyone, except to themselves. They are concerned only with their rights, and they often have great difficulty in taking responsibility for their own and other people's integral development. Hence it is important to call for a renewed reflection on how rights presuppose duties, if they are not to become mere license." (43)
*"The exclusion of religion from the public square - and, at the other extreme, religious fundamentalism - hinders an encounter between persons and their collaboration for the progress of humanity. Public life is sapped of its motivation and politics takes on a domineering and aggressive character." (56)
The newest star on You Tube is none other than His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI. The Vatican Channel opened its digital door today on You Tube, offering Papal speeches and event coverage to the world: http://www.youtube.com/vatican
The channel is part of a Vatican-Google partnership. You can now use a Google search engine on the Vatican's website: http://www.vatican.va. Along with the usual Google search results page, the State of Vatican City Coat of Arms appears in the corner.
In his letter for World Communications Day (http://www.pccs.it/Doc_GMCS_eng.htm), the Pope urged young people to use the new technology to develop true friendship and evangelize, just like the Apostles. "It falls, in particular, to young people, who have an almost spontaneous affinity for the new means of communication, to take on the responsibility for the evangelization of this "digital continent". Be sure to announce the Gospel to your contemporaries with enthusiasm. You know their fears and their hopes, their aspirations and their disappointments: the greatest gift you can give to them is to share with them the "Good News" of a God who became man, who suffered, died and rose again to save all people," he wrote.
Contact Steve Pehanich, spehanich@cacatholic.org, for more information.
Source: Catholic Legislative Network “Public Policy Insights” from the Diocese of Oakland and the California Catholic Conference.
