Message for the 2002 World Day of Tourism (excerpts)
INTELLIGENT TOURISM aims at valuing the beauty of creation and helps man to become close to it with respect, enjoying it while not altering its equilibrium.
How can we deny that humanity today is unfortunately living an ecological emergency? A certain savage tourism has contributed and continues to contribute to such destruction, since tourist spots have been built without careful and respectful consideration of the environmental impact.
Frequently, the unbridled desire to accumulate riches prevails which makes it difficult to listen to the alarming cry of poverty of entire groups of people. Therefore, it is necessary to promote forms of tourism that are more respectful to the environment, more moderate in their use of natural resources and more cooperative with local cultures. They are forms of tourism with strong ethical impetus, rooted in the conviction that the environment is everybody’s home and therefore, natural goods are meant for all those who live in it as well as for future generations.
We must be careful that [ecological tourism] does not become distorted and that it does not turn into a means of exploitation and discrimination. If protection of the environment were promoted as an end unto itself, we would run the risk of seeing modern forms of colonialism born that would damage the traditional rights of resident communities in a given territory.
In general, ecological tourism takes people to places, environments and regions whose natural equilibrium needs constant care in order not to become endangered. Therefore, studies and rigorous supervision that combine respect for nature as well as man’s right to enjoy it for his own development must be carried out.
[John Paul II concludes by especially addressing Christians], so that they make tourism an occasion of contemplation and encounter with God, Creator and Father of all, and may they, in this way, be confirmed in service to justice and peace, in fidelity to He who has promised new heavens and new earth.
+ Message for the Twenty-Third World Day of Tourism, 2002
Christ is Our Model
GOD HAS GIVEN MAN, a weak creature, a wonderful dignity: he has made him a little less than the angels or, as can also be translated from the Hebrew original, a little less than a god (see Psalm 8, verse 6)… God, indeed, has “crowned” him as a viceroy, giving him a universal lordship: “You have … put all things at their feet” and the adjective “all” resounds while the various creatures file past (see verse 7-9). However, this dominion is not conquered by man’s capacity, fragile and limited reality, nor is it obtained either by a victory over God, as the Greek myth of Prometheus intended. It is a dominion given by God: to the fragile and often egotistic hands of man is entrusted the entire horizon of creatures, so that he will preserve them in harmony and beauty, use them but not abuse them, reveal their secrets and develop their potential.
As the pastoral constitution “Gaudium et Spes” of Vatican Council II states, “man was created ‘to the image of God,’ is capable of knowing and loving his Creator, and was appointed by Him as master of all earthly creatures that he might subdue them and use them to God’s glory” (No. 12).
Unfortunately, the dominion of man, affirmed in Psalm 8, can be misunderstood and deformed by selfish man, who often has revealed himself to be a mad tyrant rather than a wise and intelligent ruler. The Book of Wisdom warns against deviations of this kind, when it specifies that God has “established man to rule the creatures produced by you, to govern the world in holiness and justice” (Wisdom 9:2-3). Although in a different context, Job also refers to our Psalm to recall in particular human weakness, which does not merit so much attention from God: “What is man, that you make much of him, or pay him any heed? You observe him with each new day” (Job 7:17-18). History documents the evil that human freedom disseminates in the world with environmental devastations and with the most terrible social injustices.
Unlike human beings, who humiliate their own kind and creation, Christ appears as the perfect man, “’crowned with glory and honor’ because he suffered death … that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone” (Hebrews 2:9). He reigns over the universe with that dominion of peace and love that prepares the new world, the new heavens and the new earth (see 2 Peter 3:13). What is more, his royal authority–as the author of the Letter to the Hebrews suggests, applying Psalm 8 to him–is exercised through the supreme gift of himself in death “for the good of all.”
Christ is not a ruler who is to be served, but a ruler who serves and devotes himself to others: “For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). In this way, he sums up in his own being “all things … in heaven and on earth” (Ephesians 1:10). In such a Christ-centered light, Psalm 8 reveals all the force of its message and of its hope, inviting us to exercise our sovereignty over creation not through domination but through love.
+ July 6, 2002, General Audience Meditation on Psalm 8 on Mankind’s Proper Sovereignty Over Creation
[At the end of the general audience, the Pope gave the following summary in English.]
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Psalm 8 is a hymn praising God, the Creator of the universe, and giving thanks for the sublime dignity bestowed upon man, the guardian of creation. God entrusted the world to men and women, yet this trust has often been abused, through the damage done to the natural environment and through man’s injustice to man. It is Jesus Christ, the new Adam, who reveals the full measure of humanity’s vocation to govern the world. In Christ’s Kingdom all people are invited to exercise their royal dominion over creation, in justice, freedom, and selfless love…
Look With Wonder
…LOOK WITH WONDER at the Creator because of the beauty and rationality of that which He has placed and keeps in existence. Only this humility before the grandeur and mystery of creation can save man from the ill-fated consequences of his own arrogance.
+Vatican City, AUG. 23, 2004
We Share in the Activity of the Creator
THE WORD OF GOD’S revelation is profoundly marked by the fundamental truth that man, created in the image of God, shares by his work in the activity of the Creator and that, within the limits of his own human capabilities, man in a sense continues to develop that activity, and perfects it as he advances further and further in the discovery of the resources and values contained in the whole of Creation. …The knowledge that by means of work man shares in the work of Creation constitutes the most profound motive for undertaking it in various sectors.
+ Laborem Exercens, 25
The Holy Spirit Acts in All Creation and History
1. IN VIEW OF THE Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, ever since the Encyclical Dominum et Vivificantem I have invited you to see “with the eyes of faith the 2,000 years of the action of the Spirit of truth, who down the centuries has drawn from the treasures of the Redemption achieved by Christ and given new life to human beings, bringing about in them adoption in the Only-begotten Son, sanctifying them, so that they can repeat with St Paul: ‘We have received … the Spirit which is from God’ (cf. I Cor 2:12)” (Dominum et Vivificantem, n. 53a).
In our previous catecheses, we have described the manifestation of God’s Spirit in the life of Christ, at Pentecost, from which the Church came into being, and in the personal and community life of believers. Our gaze now extends to the horizons of the world and the whole of human history. Thus we are moving within the plan outlined by this same Encyclical on the Holy Spirit, in which it is stressed that it is impossible for us to limit ourselves to the 2,000 years which have passed since the birth of Jesus Christ. Indeed, we need “to go further back, to embrace the whole of the action of the Holy Spirit even before Christ—from the beginning, throughout the world, and especially in the economy of the Old Covenant” (ibid., n. 53b). At the same time “we need to look further and go further afield, knowing that ‘the wind blows where it wills’ according to the image used by Jesus in his conversation with Nicodemus (cf. Jn 3:8)” (ibid., 53c).
The Spirit acts in every corner of creation
2. Moreover, the Second Vatican Council, focusing on the Church’s mystery and mission in the world, offered this breadth of vision. The Council holds that the Holy Spirit’s action cannot be limited to the institutional dimension of the Church, where the Spirit also works in a unique and full manner, but should be recognized outside the visible frontiers of Christ’s Body as well (cf. Gaudium et spes, n. 22; Lumen gentium, n. 16). For its part, the Catechism of the Catholic Church recalls with the whole of Tradition: “The Word of God and his Breath are at the origin of the being and life of every creature” (n. 703). And a meaningful text of the Byzantine liturgy says: “It belongs to the Holy Spirit to rule, sanctify and animate creation, for he is God consubstantial with the Father and the Son… Power over life pertains to the Spirit, for being God, he preserves creation in the Father through the Son” (ibid.). Thus there is no corner of creation and no moment of history in which the Spirit is not at work.
It is true that all things were created by God the Father through Christ and in Christ (cf. Col 1:16), so that the meaning and the ultimate purpose of creation is to “unite all things in him” (Eph 1:10). However, it is just as true that all this happens through the power of the Holy Spirit. Illustrating this Trinitarian “rhythm” of salvation history, St Irenaeus says that “the Spirit prepares man beforehand for the Son of God, the Son leads him to the Father and the Father gives him incorruptibility and eternal life” (Adv. Haer., IV, 20, 5).3.
The Spirit of God, present in creation and active in all the phases of salvation history, directs all things towards the definitive event of the Incarnation of the Word. Obviously, this Spirit is no different from the one who was given “not by measure” (cf. Jn 3:34) by the crucified and risen Christ. The same identical Holy Spirit prepares the advent of the Messiah in the world and, through Jesus Christ, is communicated by God the Father to the Church and to all humanity. The Christological and pneumatological dimensions are inseparable and not only run through the history of salvation, but the entire history of the world.
Therefore .we can legitimately think that the way to salvation is open wherever there are elements of truth, goodness, genuine beauty and true wisdom, wherever generous efforts are made to build a more human society in conformity with God’s plan. Even more so, wherever there is a sincere expectation of God’s revelation and a hope open to the saving mystery, we can recognize the hidden and effective work of the Spirit of God who spurs man to the encounter with Christ “the Way, the Truth and the Life” (Jn 14:6). When we turn over certain wonderful pages of literature and philosophy, justly admire some masterpiece of art or listen to passages of sublime music, we spontaneously recognize in these expressions of human genius a radiant reflection of God’s Spirit. Of course, these reflections are on a different plane from those interventions which make the human being, raised to the supernatural order, a temple in which the Holy Spirit dwells together with the other Persons of the Blessed Trinity (cf. St Thomas, Summa Theol., 1-11, q. 109, a. I, ad 1). Thus the Holy Spirit, directly or indirectly, orients man to his integral salvation.
We are sent to transmit fullness of the Spirit to all humanity
4. For this reason we would like to pause in the next catecheses to contemplate the Spirit’s action in the vast arena of humanity’s history. This vision will also help us grasp the deep relationship that unites the Church and the world, the overall history of man and the particular history of salvation. The latter is not actually a “separate” history, but rather plays a role with regard to the former that we could describe as “sacramental,” that is, as a sign and instrument of the one great offer of salvation which reached humanity through the Incarnation of the Word and the outpouring of the Spirit.
With this as the key, it is easy to understand several marvelous pages of the Second Vatican Council on the solidarity that exists between the Church and humanity. In this pneumatological perspective I am pleased to reread the preface of Gaudium et spes: “The joy and the hope, the grief and anguish of the men of our time, especially of those who are poor or afflicted in any way, are the joy and hope, the grief and anguish of the followers of Christ as well. Nothing that is genuinely human fails to find an echo in their hearts. For theirs is a community composed of men, of men who, united in Christ and guided by the Holy Spirit, press onwards towards the kingdom of the Father and are bearers of a message of salvation intended for all men. That is why Christians cherish a feeling of deep solidarity with the human race and its history” (n. 1).
It can be clearly seen here how the Church’s solidarity with the world and her mission to it must be understood as starting from Christ, in the light and power of the Holy Spirit. The Church thus experiences herself at the service of the Spirit who works mysteriously in hearts and in history. And we feel we are sent to transmit to all humanity the fullness of the Spirit received on the day of Pentecost.
+ General Audience Address of August 12, 1998
Creation Must Be Dwelling Place of Peace
1. IN THE EIGHTH CHAPTER of his Letter to the Romans, as he explains the action of the Holy Spirit who makes us sons of the Father in Christ Jesus (cf. Rom 8:14-16), the Apostle Paul introduces the theme of the world’s path towards its fulfillment according to the divine plan. Indeed the Holy Spirit, as we have already explained in previous catecheses, is present and active in creation and in the history of salvation. We could say that he enfolds the cosmos in God’s love and mercy, and thus directs humanity’s history towards its definitive goal.
The cosmos is created by God as the dwelling place of man and the theater of his adventure of freedom. In the dialogue with grace, every human being is called to accept responsibly the gift of divine sonship in Jesus Christ. For this reason, the created world acquires its true significance in man and for man. He cannot, of course, dispose as he pleases of the cosmos in which he lives, but must, through his intelligence, consciously bring the Creator’s work to completion.“Man,” teaches Gaudium et spes, “was created in God’s image and was commanded to conquer the earth with all it contains and to rule the world in justice and holiness: he was to acknowledge God as maker of all things and relate himself and the totality of creation to him, so that through the dominion of all things by man the name of God would be majestic in all the earth” (n. 34).
Man must use his freedom in harmony with God’s will
2. For the divine plan to be fulfilled, man must use his freedom in harmony with God’s will and overcome the disorder introduced into human life and into the world by sin. Without the gift of the Holy Spirit, this twofold achievement cannot occur. The prophets of the Old Testament put great stress on this. Thus the prophet Ezekiel says: “A new heart I will give you. and a new spirit I will put within you: and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances … you shall be my people, and I will be your God” (Ez 36:26-28).
This profound personal and community renewal, awaited in the “fullness of time” and brought about by the Holy Spirit, will to some extent involve the whole cosmos. Isaiah writes: “Until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, / and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field… / Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, / and righteousness abide in the fruitful field. / And the effect of righteousness will be peace, / and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust for ever. / My people will abide in a peaceful habitation” (Is 32:15-18).3. For the Apostle Peter, this promise is fulfilled in Christ Jesus, crucified and risen. In fact, through the Spirit Christ redeems and sanctifies whoever accepts his Word of salvation in faith, transforming his heart and consequently social relations.
Through the gift of the Holy Spirit, the world of men becomes a “spatium verae fraternitatis,” a place of true brotherhood (cf. Gaudium et spes, n. 37). This transformation of man’s behavior and of social relations is expressed in ecclesial life, in the commitment to temporal realities and in dialogue with all people of goodwill. This witness becomes a prophetic sign and leaven in history towards the advent of the kingdom, overcoming everything that prevents communion among men.
God has appointed man as guardian of creation
4. The cosmos is also called, in a mysterious but real way, to participate in this newness of life in the building up of universal peace through justice and love. As the Apostle Paul teaches, “the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Rom 8:19-23).
Creation, given life by the presence of the Creator Spirit, is called to become “a dwelling place of peace” for the entire human family. Creation achieves this goal by means of the freedom of man whom God has appointed as its guardian. If man selfishly withdraws into himself, through a false conception of freedom, he fatally involves creation itself in this perversion.
On the contrary, through the gift of the Holy Spirit which Jesus Christ pours out upon us from his side pierced on the Cross, man acquires the true freedom of a son in the Son. He can thus understand the true meaning of creation and work to make it a “dwelling place of peace.”
In this sense, Paul can say that creation is groaning and awaiting the revelation of the sons of God. Only if man, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, recognizes himself as a son of God in Christ and looks at creation with fraternal sentiment, can the whole cosmos be set free and redeemed in accordance with the divine plan.
5. The consequence of these reflections is truly comforting: the Holy Spirit is the true hope of the world. Not only does he work in the hearts of men into which he introduces that wonderful participation in the filial relationship which Jesus Christ lives with the Father, but he exalts and perfects human activities in the world.
As the Second Vatican Council teaches, they “must be purified and perfected by the Cross and Resurrection of Christ. Redeemed by Christ and made a new creature by the Holy Spirit, man can, indeed he must, love the things of God’s creation: it is from God that he has received them, and it is as flowing from God’s hand that he looks upon them and reveres them. Man thanks his divine benefactor for all these things, he uses them and enjoys them in a spirit of poverty and freedom: thus he is brought to a true possession of the world, as having nothing yet possessing everything: ‘All [things] are yours; and you are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s’ (I Cor 3:22-23)” (Gaudium et spes, n. 37).
+ General Audience Address of August 19, 1998
Trinity Is Mysteriously Present in Creation
1. “HOW GREATLY TO BE desired are all his works, and how sparkling they are to see!… He has made nothing incomplete… Who can have enough of beholding his glory? Though we speak much we cannot reach the end, and the sum of our words is: “He is the all.’ Where shall we find strength to praise him? He is greater than all his works…” (Sir 42:22, 24-25; 43:27-28). With these words full of wonder, Sirach, a biblical sage, contemplated the splendor of creation and sang God’s praises. It is a tiny piece of the thread of contemplation and meditation which runs throughout Sacred Scripture, from the first lines of Genesis when creatures, summoned by the powerful Word of the Creator, spring from the silence of nothingness.
God’s majesty is exalted above the heavens
“God said, “Let there be light’; and there was light” (Gn 1:3). In this part of the first account of creation the Word of God is already seen in action; John will say of him: “In the beginning was the Word … the Word was God … all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made” (Jn 1:1-3). Paul will emphasize in the hymn in the Letter to the Colossians that “in him [Christ] all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Col 1:16-17). But at the very first moment of creation the Spirit also seems to be foreshadowed: “the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters” (Gn 1:2). The glory of the Trinity—we can say with Christian tradition—is resplendent in creation.
2. We can see in the light of Revelation how the creative act is appropriated in the first place to the “Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (Jas 1:17). He shines resplendently over the whole horizon, as the Psalmist sings: “O Lord, our Lord, how glorious is your name over all the earth! You have exalted your majesty above the heavens” (Ps 8:2). God “has made the world firm, not to be moved” (Ps 96:10), and as he faces nothingness, symbolized by the chaotic waters which lift up their voice, the Creator arises, giving firmness and safety: “The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice, the floods lift up their roaring. Mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea, the Lord on high is mighty” (Ps 93:3-4).
3. In Sacred Scripture creation is also often linked to the divine Word which breaks in and acts: “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth… He spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood forth… He sends forth his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly” (Ps 33:6, 9; 147:15). In the Wisdom literature of the Old Testament it is divine Wisdom personified that brings forth the universe, carrying out the plan God has in mind (cf. Prv 8:22-31). It has been said that in God’s Word and Wisdom John and Paul saw the foretelling of the action of Christ “from whom are all things and for whom we exist” (1 Cor 8:6), because it is “through [Christ] also [that God] created the world” (Heb 1:2).
4. At other times Scripture stresses the role of God’s Spirit in the act of creation: “When you send forth your Spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the earth” (Ps 104:30). The same Spirit is symbolically described as the breath of God’s mouth. He gives life and consciousness to man (cf. Gn 2:7), and brings him back to life in the resurrection, as the prophet Ezekiel announces in an evocative passage where the Spirit is at work breathing life into dry bones (cf. 37:1-14). This same breath subdues the waters of the sea at Israel’s exodus from Egypt (cf. Ex 15:8, 10). Again the Spirit regenerates the human creature, as Jesus will say in his night-time conversation with Nicodemus: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (Jn 3:5-6).
God’s invisible reality can be perceived in creation
5. So, in beholding the glory of the Trinity in creation, man must contemplate, sing and rediscover wonder. In contemporary society people become indifferent “not for lack of wonders, but for lack of wonder” (G. K. Chesterton). For the believer, to contemplate creation is also to hear a message, to listen to a paradoxical and silent voice, as the “Psalm of the sun” suggests: “The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard; yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world” (Ps 19:1-5).
Nature thus becomes a gospel which speaks to us of God: “from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator” (Wis 13:5). Paul teaches us that “ever since the creation of the world his [God’s] invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made” (Rom 1:20). But this capacity for contemplation and knowledge, this discovery of a transcendent presence in created things must lead us also to rediscover our kinship with the earth, to which we have been linked since our own creation (cf. Gn 2:7). This is precisely the goal which the Old Testament wished for the Hebrew Jubilee, when the land was at rest and man ate what the fields spontaneously gave him (cf. Lv 25:11-12). If nature is not violated and degraded, it once again becomes man’s sister.
+ General Audience Address of January 26, 2000
God Is The Lord Of Creation And History
1. THE YEAR 2000 is now close at hand. I therefore consider it opportune to focus the Wednesday catecheses on themes which will more directly help us understand the meaning of the Jubilee, in order to live it in depth.
In the Apostolic Letter Tertio millennio adveniente, I asked all the Church’s members “to open their hearts to the promptings of the Spirit,” to prepare to “celebrate the Jubilee with renewed faith and generous participation” (n. 59). This exhortation becomes more and more urgent with the approach of that historic date. In fact the event acts as a watershed between the past two millenniums and the new phase dawning for the future of the Church and of humanity.
We must prepare for it in the light of faith. Indeed, for believers the passage from the second to the third millennium is not merely a stage in the relentless march of time, but a significant occasion to become more aware of God’s plan unfolding in the history of humanity.
Trinitarian key to preparing for the Jubilee
2. This new cycle of catecheses aims to do precisely this. For a long time we have been conducting a systematic program of reflections on the Creed. Our last theme was Mary in the mystery of Christ and the Church. We had previously reflected on Revelation, the Trinity, Christ and his saving work, the Holy Spirit and the Church.
At this point, the profession of faith would invite us to consider the resurrection of the body and life everlasting, which concern the future of man and of history. But precisely this eschatological theme coincides naturally with what has been proposed by Tertio millennio adveniente, which described a path of preparation for the Jubilee in a Trinitarian key, planning this year to focus especially on Jesus Christ and then to move on to the year of the Holy Spirit and later to that of the Father.
In the light of the Trinity the “last things” also acquire meaning, and it is possible to understand more deeply the journey of man and history towards their ultimate goal: the world’s return to God the Father, to whom Christ, the Son of God and Lord of history, leads us through the life-giving gift of the Holy Spirit.
3. This broad horizon of history in motion suggests several basic questions: What is time? What is its origin? What is its goal?
Indeed, as we look at Christ’s birth, our attention focuses on the 2,000 years of history which separate us from that event. But our gaze also turns to the millenniums that preceded it and spontaneously we look back to the origins of man and the world. Contemporary science is involved in formulating hypotheses about the beginning and development of the universe. Nevertheless, what can be grasped by scientific instruments and criteria is not everything, and both faith and reason refer, beyond verifiable and measurable data, to the perspective of mystery. This perspective is indicated in the first sentence of the Bible: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gn 1:1).
Everything was created by God. Therefore nothing existed before creation except God. He is a transcendent God, who created everything by his own omnipotence, without being constrained by any necessity, by an absolutely free and gratuitous act, dictated only by love. He is God the Trinity, who reveals himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
4. In creating the universe God created time. From him comes the beginning of time, as well as all its later unfolding. The Bible stresses that living beings depend at every moment on divine action: “When you hide your face they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. When you send forth your Spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the earth” (Ps 104 [103] :29-30).
Time therefore is God’s gift. Continuously created by God, it is in his hands. He guides its unfolding according to his plan. Every day is a gift of divine love for us. From this standpoint, we also welcome the date of the Great Jubilee as a gift of love.5. God is Lord of time not only as creator of the world, but also as author of the new creation in Christ. He intervened to heal and renew the human condition, deeply wounded by sin. He spent much time preparing his people for the splendor of the new creation, especially through the words of the prophets: “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. But be glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy” (Is 65:17-18).
We look to the future filled with hope
His promise was fulfilled 2,000 years ago with the birth of Christ. In this light, the jubilee event is an invitation to celebrate the Christian era as a period of renewal for humanity and the universe. Despite the difficulties and sufferings, the past years have been 2,000 years of grace.
The years to come, too, are in God’s hands. The future of man is first of all God’s future, in the sense that he alone knows it, prepares it and brings it about. Of course, he calls for and invites human co-operation, but he never ceases to be the transcendent “director” of history.
With this certainty we prepare for the Jubilee. Only God knows how the future will be. We know, however, that in any event it will be a future of grace; it will be the fulfillment of a divine plan of love for all humanity and for each one of us. That is why, as we look to the future, we are full of hope and are not overcome with fear. The journey to the Jubilee is a great journey of hope.
+ General Audience Address of November 19, 1997
Remember Saint Francis
EVERYONE REMEMBERS the stories of Saint Francis joyfully speaking with the animals, urging them to respect others and to praise the Creator. This example is particularly urgent for our times when, without the slightest concern, man is slowly destroying the environment that the Creator had prepared for him.
+ Post-Angelus: National Day of Ecology and Zoology, March 28, 1982
Treat Plants, Animals, and Minerals as Brothers and Sisters
WHEN MAN HABITUALLY loves and respects lower creatures, he will also learn to be more human with his equals. I am therefore happy to encourage and bless those who work to assure that, in the Franciscan spirit, animals, plants, and minerals be considered and treated as “brothers and sisters.”
+ Post-Angelus Greeting to Participants in Tera Mater Seminar, October 3, 1982
Witness of Saint Francis
THE WITNESS OF Francis leads those of today not to plunder nature, but to assume responsibility for it, taking care that it all remains healthy and unharmed,… to offer future generations an environment that welcomes their presence and in which they can be at ease.
+ Post-Angelus: National Day of Ecology and Zoology, March 28, 1982
Evolution and the Soul
IF THE HUMAN BODY has its origin in living material which preexists it, the spiritual soul is immediately created by God.
+ Message to Pontifical Academy of Sciences, October 22, 1996
Secularized Modern Age
THE ENVIRONMENT has often fallen prey to the interests of a few strong industrial groups, to the detriment of humanity as a whole, with the ensuing damage to the balance of the ecosystem, the health of the inhabitants and of future generations to come…
In the secularized modern age, we are seeing the emergence of a twofold temptation: knowledge no longer understood as wisdom and contemplation but as power over nature…
The other temptation is the unbridled exploitation of resources under the urge of unlimited profit-seeking, according to the capitalistic mentality typical of modern societies…
In your endeavor to preserve the healthiness of the environment, may the Lord enlighten and assist you. I commend your efforts to his bounty as our Father, rich in love for each one of his creatures, and I bless you all in his name.
+ Address to UN Conference on Health and Environment, March 24, 1997
Social Function of Private Property
THIS PRINCIPLE DOES NOT delegitimize private property; instead it broadens the understanding and management of private property to embrace its indispensable social function, to the advantage of the common good and in particular the good of society’s weakest members…
+ Vatican, December 8, 1999
Reasons for Hope
THE TRUTH IS that when people cut themselves off from God’s plan for creation, they block out concern for their brothers and sisters, and respect for nature.
However, there are reasons for hope. Many persons, aware of this problem, for some time have been studying ways to find a remedy. They are first of all concerned to recover the spiritual dimension of the relationship with creation, by rediscovering the mandate God originally entrusted to humanity (cf. Gen. 2:15).
+ Message for the 23rd World Day of Tourism, June 24, 2002
God’s Co-workers
CREATED IN THE IMAGE of God, humanity has the right to make use of other created realities but not to lord over nature, still less to ruin it. People are called to become God’s coworkers in caring for creation.
+ Angelus, March 24, 1996
Humility
ONLY THIS HUMILITY before the grandeur and mystery of creation can save man from the ill-fated consequences of his own arrogance.
+ Message to a Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples at Rimini, Italy, August 24, 2004
The Divine Image
THIS IS A TASK that humanity must carry out in respect for the divine image received, and, therefore with intelligence and with love, assuming responsibility for the gifts that God has bestowed and continues to bestow.
+ Christifideles Laici, December 30, 1988
Animals Also Have a Vital Breath
…WE KNOW THAT MAN was created “in the image and likeness of God.” Other texts, however, admit that the animals also have a vital breath or wind and that they received it from God. Under this aspect man, coming forth from the hands of God, appears in solidarity with all living beings. Thus Psalm 104 makes no distinction between men and animals when it says, addressing God the Creator: “These all look to you, to give them their food in due season. When you give to them, the gather it up.” The Psalmist then adds: “When you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. When you send forth your Spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the earth.”
+ General Audience, “The Creative Action of the Divine Spirit,” January 7, 1990
Our Brother’s Keeper
THERE IS A GROWING THREAT to the environment of humanity, to vegetation, animals, water, and air. Sacred Scripture hands on the image of Cain who rejected his responsibility: “Am I my brother’s keeper?
”The Bible shows the human person is his brother’s keeper and the guardian of creation that has been entrusted to him.
+ Address, Representatives of Science, Art, and Journalism, Salzburg, Austria, June 26, 1988
Good Shepherd of the Environment
MAN IS CALLED TO BE the good shepherd of the environment… This is the task he was given long ago and which the human family has assumed not without success through its history; until recently when man himself has become the destroyer of his natural environment.
+ World Day of Youth Mass Homily, Cherry Creek Campground, Denver, August 14, 1993
Human Labor
AWARENESS THAT MAN’S WORK is a participation in God’s activity ought to permeate… even the most ordinary everyday activities. For, while providing the substance of life for themselves and their families, men and women are performing their activities in a way which appropriately benefits society. They can justly consider that by their labor the are unfolding the Creator’s work, consulting the advantages of their brothers and sisters, and contributing by their personal industry to the realization in history of the divine plan.
+ Encyclical, Labore Exercen (On Human Labor), September 14, 1981
Artistic Creativity
THE OPENING PAGE OF THE BIBLE presents God as a kind of exemplar of everyone who produces work: the human craftsman mirrors the image of God as Creator. This relationship is particularly clear in the Polish language because of the lexical link between the words stworca (creator) and tworca (craftsman)…
God therefore called man into existence, committing to him the craftsman’s task. Through his “artistic creativity,” man appears more than ever “in the image of God,” and he accomplishes this task above all in shaping the wondrous “material” of his own humanity and then exercising creative dominion over the universe which surrounds him. With loving regard, the divine Artist passes on to the human artist a spark of his own surpassing wisdom, calling him to share in his creative power.
+ Letter to Artists, April 4, 1999
The Mosaic of Charity
SELFISHNESS MAKES PEOPLE DEAF and dumb; love opens eyes and ears, enabling people to make that original and irreplaceable contribution which – together with the thousands of deeds of so many brothers and sisters, often distant and unknown – converges to form the mosaic of charity that can change the tide of history.
+ 11th World Day of Youth, November 25, 1995
A Challenge to Landowners
THE LAND IS A GIFT of God for the benefit of all… It is not permissible to use this gift in such a manner that the benefits it produces serve only a limited number of people, while the others – the vast majority – are excluded from the benefits which the land yields. A… challenge is, therefore, presented to those that own or control land.
+ Address, Proprietors and Workers, Bacolod City, Philippines, February 20, 1981
The Common Good
IT WAS A COMMON CONVICTION, in fact, that to God alone, as Creator, belonged the… lordship over all Creation and over the earth in particular (cf. Lev. 25:23). If, in his Providence, God had given the earth to humanity, that meant he had given it to everyone.
Therefore, the riches of Creation were to be considered as a common good of the whole of humanity. Those who possessed these goods as personal property were really only stewards, ministers charged with working in the name of God, who remains the sole owner in the full sense…
+ Apostolic Letter, Tertio Millennio Adveniente, November 10, 1994
The Needs of the Poor
THE NEEDS OF THE POOR must take priority over the desires of the rich; the rights of workers over the maximization of profits; the preservation of the environment over uncontrolled industrial expansion; production to meet social needs over production for military purposes.
+ Apostolic Visit to Canada, Anglican Church of Saint Paul, September 14, 1984
Respect for Nature
RESPECT FOR NATURE by everyone, a policy of openness to immigrants, the cancellation or significant reduction of the debt of poorer nations, the promotion of peace through dialogue and negotiation, the primacy of the rule of law: these are the priorities the leaders of the developed nations cannot disregard.
+ Address to President George W. Bush at Castel Gandlfo, July 23, 2001
God: The Earth is Mine
THE JUBILEE IS a further summons to conversion of heart through a change of life. It is a reminder to all that they should give absolute importance neither to the goods of the earth, since these are not God, nor to man’s domination or claim to domination, since the earth belongs to God and to him alone: “the earth is mine and you are strangers and sojourners with me” (Lev. 25:23). May this year of grace touch the hearts of those who hold in their hands the fate of the world’s peoples!
+ Bull of Indiction of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, Incarnationis Mysterium, Saint Peter’s, November 29, 1998
We See Ourselves From the Moon
FOR THE FIRST TIME, we see ourselves from the outside – from the moon – and we realize that we must be more responsible for ourselves, our neighbors, our institutions, and our planet, whatever may be our nation, religion, or political stance.
+ Address to Vatican Observatory Conference on Cosmology, July 6, 1985
Culture of Waste
UNFORTUNATELY, IN THE countries of the so-called “developed” world, an irrational consumerism is spreading, a sort of “culture of waste,” that is becoming a widespread lifestyle.
+ Jubilee of the Agricultural World Address, Vatican, November 11, 2000
The Slave of Things
IT IS A MATTER …not so much of “having more” as of “being more”… [Man] cannot become the slave of things, the slave of economic systems, the slave of production, the slave of his own products. A civilization purely materialistic in outline condemns a man to such slavery.
+ Encyclical, Redemptor Hominis, March 4, 1979
The Earth is God’s Gift
A SERIOUS AND SERENE REFLECTION on man and human coexistence in society, enlightened and strengthened by the word of God and the teaching of the Church from the beginning, tells us that the earth is God’s gift, the gift he made to all human beings, men and women, that he wants gathered in one family and in relationship with each other in a fraternal spirit. Therefore it is not permissible, because it is not in accord with God’s plan, that this gift be used in such a way that its benefits favor only a few.
+ Homily During the Mass Celebrated for Farmers in Recife, July 7, 1980
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