Green Catholics
The beauty of God’s creation is being destroyed, and people of all faiths need to work together to stop the destruction, says Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.
The retired archbishop of Washington, D.C., spoke Tuesday with Vatican Radio about the need to protect the environment. His comments came as he participated in the seventh symposium organized by the nongovernmental organization Religion, Science and the Environment, which ended today.
The symposium was held under the patronage of Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I and gathered religious and social leaders in Greenland.
Cardinal McCarrick said that “this is a holy place, because this is God’s work. The Lord gave us this world, this beauty, which has an extraordinary importance for the well-being of the entire world. Being here we can say thanks to God for this world, thanks for this place, thanks for the opportunity to live and inhabit these places, because this is his house.”
“But,” the 77-year-old cardinal added, “we also know that is necessary to do something so that the world’s greatness will go on, the beauty of the world, the holiness of the world. We are here to say that we are a family and that we must safeguard the house of the family.”
On Monday, the participants were in Nuuk, home of the only Catholic church in Greenland.
Cardinal McCarrick encouraged people of all religions to work together in protecting the environment.
“We can see this beauty, but we can also see, unfortunately, that all of this is being destroyed,” he said. “I believe that we must participate and come together to be able to do something good in this moment for the future of the world and for future generations.”
Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, says the event was indicative of the progress that was being made bridging the divide between environmentalism and faith. “Environmentalism is really the intersection of science and ethical principles,” he says. “I was part of the generation that made the choice – the horrendous strategic blunder – of situating ourselves outside the institutions of faith. Now we have a chance to repent for and reform from that error.”
Religious leaders also signaled the need to work together.
“It is very, very key for as many voices from as many fields as possible to come together to present a common effort,” Cardinal McCarrick, Pope Benedict XVI’s official representative, told the Monitor. Failure to address climate change, he said, “will mean the terrible suffering of millions of people.”
I’m absolutely delighted the Church is getting involved in the protection of the environment.
30 years ago, as a battle for Alaska’s wilderness raged in Congress, I don’t recall hearing one peep from a Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant or Jewish religious leader to put limits on oil, mining and timber companies for the sake of preserving the subsistence lifestyle of Alaskan and Canadian natives peoples, or to protect our natural heritage. Pagan/Wiccan practioners did…and so did American Indian folks following their own religious traditions; but nobody else. But then, the last two were rooted in the earth, and the other bunch focused elsewhere.
I’m glad organized religion is finally catching up to the heathens!
www.usccb.org/sdwp/national/environment.shtml
