Stewards of God’s Creation

Pope John Paul II said that while responsible care for the environment is the concern of everyone, it is especially a concern for Christians who believe in God as the Creator. John Paul goes so far as the say the current ecological crisis is a moral issue. “When the ecological crisis is set within the broader context of the search for peace within society, we can understand better the importance of giving attention to what the earth and its atmosphere are telling us: namely, that there is an order in the universe which must be respected, and that the human person, endowed with the capability of choosing freely, has a grave responsibility to preserve this order for the well-being of future generations. I wish to repeat that the ecological crisis is a moral issue.” (Pope John Paul II’s message for the World Day of Peace, January 1990)

While it is not wrong to want to live better or to desire a comfortable life, it is wrong to assume a lifestyle where “having” is more important than “being.” We need to be cautious that we do not fall into a form of consumerism that values the pursuit of possessions over the quest for the true, good and beautiful. (Centesimus Annus #36) Unbridled consumerism is in direct contrast to an authentic care for God’s creation.

“Equally worrying is the ecological question which accompanies the problem of consumerism and which is closely connected to it. In his desire to have and to enjoy rather than to be and to grow, man consumes the resources of the earth and his own life in an excessive and disordered way… Man thinks that he can make arbitrary use of the earth, subjecting it without restraint to his will, as though it did not have its own requisites and a prior God-given purpose, which man can indeed develop but must not betray.” (Centesimus Annus#37 )