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Selected Bulletin Quotes

Environment and Climate Change

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Environmental pollution is making The external deserts in the world are


particularly unsustainable the lives of the growing, because the internal deserts have
poor of the world. In dialogue with become so vast. Therefore the earth's
Christians of various confessions, we must treasures no longer serve to build God's
pledge ourselves to take care of creation and garden for all to live in, but they have been
to share its resources in solidarity. - Pope made to serve the powers of exploitation
Benedict XVI during his Angelus address on and destruction. - Pope Benedict XVI,
Sunday, Aug. 27, 2006. homily at Inaugural Mass, 2005.

Do not be fooled by those who see you as The brutal consumption of creation begins
just another consumer in a market of where God is not, where matter is
undifferentiated possibilities, where choice henceforth only material for us, where we
itself becomes the good, novelty usurps ourselves are the ultimate demand, where
beauty, and subjective experience displaces the whole is merely our property and we
truth… consume it for ourselves alone … I think,
—Pope Benedict XVI at World Youth Day, therefore, that true and effective
June 2008 initiatives to prevent the waste and
destruction of creation can be
implemented and developed, understood
and lived, only where creation is
considered as beginning with God.
—Pope Benedict XVI, August 2008

To download this and other documents, visit The Catholic Coalition on Climate Change website:
www.catholicsandclimatechange.org.
Christians, in particular, realize that their … make the responsibilities visible so that
responsibility within creation and their duty we may respond to this great challenge: to
towards nature and the Creator are an rediscover the Face of the Creator in
essential part of their faith. - John Paul II, Creation, to rediscover in the Creator's
1990 World Day of Peace Message, no. 15. presence our responsibilities for his
Creation, which he has entrusted to us, to
form the ethical capacity for a lifestyle that
we must adopt if we wish to tackle the
problems of this situation [of climate
change] and if we really want to reach
positive solutions. —Pope Benedict XVI at
World Youth Day, June 2008

Prudence does not mean failing to accept If the protection of the environment
responsibilities and postponing decisions; it involves costs, they should be justly
means being committed to making joint distributed, taking due account of the
decisions after pondering responsibly the different levels of development of various
road to be taken, decisions aimed at countries and the need for solidarity with
strengthening that covenant between human future generations.
beings and the environment, which should —Pope Benedict XVI, World Day of Peace
mirror the creative love of God, from whom Message, December 2007
we come and towards whom we are
journeying. —Pope Benedict XVI, World Day
of Peace Message, December 2007

We cannot interfere in one area of the My dear friends, God’s creation is one and
ecosystem without paying due attention to it is good. The concerns for non-violence,
both the consequences of such interference sustainable development, justice and
in other areas and to the well-being of future peace, and care for our environment are of
generations. - John Paul II, 1990 World Day of vital importance for humanity.
Peace Message, no. 6. —Pope Benedict XVI at World Youth Day,
June 2008

To download this and other documents, visit The Catholic Coalition on Climate Change website:
www.catholicsandclimatechange.org.
It is manifestly unjust that a privileged few The aesthetic value of creation cannot be
should continue to accumulate excess goods, overlooked. Our very contact with nature
squandering available resources, while has a deep restorative power;
masses of people are living in conditions of contemplation of its magnificence imparts
misery at the very lowest level of peace and serenity. The Bible speaks again
subsistence. - John Paul II, 1990 World Day of and again of the goodness and beauty of
Peace Message, no. 8. creation, which is called to glorify God. -
John Paul II, 1990 World Day of Peace
Message, no. 14.

Created things belong not to the few, but to At its core, global climate change is not
the entire human family. - US Catholic about economic theory or political
Bishops, Renewing the Earth, 1991, p. 8. platforms, nor about partisan advantage or
interest group pressures. It is about the
future of God's creation and the one human
family. - US Catholic Bishops, Global Climate
Change: A Plea for Dialogue, Prudence and
the Common Good, 2001

Because of the blessings God has bestowed True stewardship requires changes in
on our nation and the power it possesses, the human actions - both moral behavior and
United States bears a special responsibility in technical advancement. Our religious
its stewardship of God's creation to shape tradition has always urged restraint and
responses that serve the entire human moderation in the use of material goods, so
family. - US Catholic Bishops, Global Climate we must not allow our desire to possess
Change: A Plea for Dialogue, Prudence and more material things to overtake our
the Common Good, 2001 concern for the basic needs of people and
the environment. - US Catholic Bishops,
Global Climate Change: A Plea for Dialogue,
Prudence and the Common Good, 2001

To download this and other documents, visit The Catholic Coalition on Climate Change website:
www.catholicsandclimatechange.org.
As Catholic bishops, we seek to offer a As people of religious faith, we bishops
distinctively religious and moral perspective believe that the atmosphere that supports
to what is necessarily a complicated life on earth is a God-given gift, one we
scientific, economic, and political discussion. must respect and protect. It unites us as
Ethical questions lie at the heart of the one human family. If we harm the
challenges facing us. - US Catholic Bishops, atmosphere, we dishonor our Creator and
Global Climate Change: A Plea for Dialogue, the gift of creation. - US Catholic Bishops,
Prudence and the Common Good, 2001 Global Climate Change: A Plea for Dialogue,
Prudence and the Common Good, 2001

The complexity of the ecological question is Man's dominion over inanimate and other
evident to all. There are, however, certain living beings granted by the Creator is not
underlying principles which, while absolute; it is limited by concern for the
respecting the legitimate autonomy and the quality of life of his neighbor, including
specific competence of those involved, can generations to come; it requires a religious
direct research towards adequate and lasting respect for the integrity of creation. -
solutions. These principles are essential to Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2415
the building of a peaceful society; no peaceful
society can afford to neglect either respect
for life or the fact that there is an integrity to
creation. Respect for life, and above all for
the dignity of the human person, is the
ultimate guiding norm for any sound
economic, industrial or scientific progress.
John Paul II, 1990 World Day of Peace, no. 7.

As individuals, as institutions, as a people we The whole human race suffers as a result


need a change of heart to preserve and of environmental blight, and generations
protect the planet for our children and for yet unborn will bear the price for our
generations yet unborn. - Renewing the failure to act today. - Renewing the Earth,
Earth, U.S. Catholic Bishops, 1991, p. 3. U.S. Catholic Bishops, 1991, p. 2.

To download this and other documents, visit The Catholic Coalition on Climate Change website:
www.catholicsandclimatechange.org.
CLIP ART

To download this and other documents, visit The Catholic Coalition on Climate Change website:
www.catholicsandclimatechange.org.

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