VATICAN CITY, DEC. 17, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI today urged political leaders to advance binding international accords to protect the environment.
The Pope made this exhortation in a French-language address to eight new ambassadors to the Holy See, from Denmark, Uganda, Sudan, Kenya, Kazakhstan, Bangladesh, Finland and Latvia. The U.N. conference on climate change, under way in Copenhagen, is set to conclude Friday.
«I heartily encourage the political authorities of your respective countries and of the family of nations, not only to strengthen their activities in favor of protecting the environment, but also — given that the problem can only be confronted at the particular level in each country — to be a force for proposals and incentives, so as to reach binding international accords that are useful and just for everyone.»
«As much in the individual realm as in the political one, it is now necessary to take up more decided commitments and ones that are shared more widely, in that which pertains to creation,» he contended. «People cannot exclude themselves from [responsibility for creation], nor defer it to coming generations.»
The Bishop of Rome also pointed to the connection between creation and world hunger.
He cautioned that the deterioration of the environment «is a direct threat for the survival of man and for his proper development; and it can even directly threaten peace between people and populations.»
Reckless consuming
The Pope recalled that «the good of man is not found in ever more reckless consumption nor in the limitless accumulation of things — consumption and accumulation that are reserved to a small number and proposed as models for the masses.»
Instead, Benedict XVI proposed, religions are a source of peace.
Religions emphasize the «primacy of the person and the spirit,» he said, though the state as well has this duty.
The Pope continued by telling the ambassadors that nations should encourage the person in his spiritual quest.
«We all know that peace needs political and economic, cultural and spiritual conditions to establish itself,» he affirmed. «Peaceful coexistence among different religious traditions within each nation is sometimes difficult.»
«More than a political problem, this coexistence is also an internal problem,» he continued.
In God’s eyes
The key to the solution, the Holy Father proposed, is recognizing God as the creator of man: «of every man, regardless of his religion, social condition or political opinions.»
And by recognizing this, he said, «every one will respect the other in his uniqueness and difference.»
«Before God there is no category or hierarchy of persons, inferior or superior, dominant or protected,» the Pontiff declared. «There is nothing for Him more than the person he has created out of love and who He wants to see live, in his family and in society, in fraternal harmony.»
«For the person of faith or of good will, the resolution of human conflicts, like the fragile co-existence of different religions, can transform itself in human coexistence in an order full of goodness and wisdom that has its origin and dynamism in God,» he continued. «This coexistence in the respect for the nature of things and the inherent wisdom that comes from God […] is called peace.»
In his place
The Pope acknowledged that it is sometimes difficult in the political and economic world to give primacy of place to the person.
Even more challenging is admitting «the importance and the necessity of religion,» he said, and giving «religion its true nature and space in the public sphere.»
But, the Holy Father concluded, «peace — which is so desired — will not be reached in any way other than with the joint action of individuals, who discover their true nature in God, and of the leaders of civil and religious societies who — with respect for the dignity and the faith of each one — know how to recognize and give to religion its noble and authentic function of completing and perfecting the human person.»
