USCCB and Papal Statements about CFGC
On Care for Our Common Home (Laudato Si') is an appeal from Pope Francis addressed to "every person living on this planet" for an inclusive dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet. For more resources, please visit the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ webpage at usccb.org/environment.
Pope Francis
“If someone has not learned to stop and admire something beautiful, we should not be surprised if he or she treats everything as an object to be used and abused without scruple. If we want to bring about deep change, we need to realize that certain mindsets really do influence our behaviour. Our efforts at education will be inadequate and ineffectual unless we strive to promote a new way of thinking about human beings, life, society and our relationship with nature. Otherwise, the paradigm of consumerism will continue to advance, with the help of the media and the highly effective workings of the market.”
― Pope Francis, Laudato Si: On care for our common home
“If someone has not learned to stop and admire something beautiful, we should not be surprised if he or she treats everything as an object to be used and abused without scruple. If we want to bring about deep change, we need to realize that certain mindsets really do influence our behaviour. Our efforts at education will be inadequate and ineffectual unless we strive to promote a new way of thinking about human beings, life, society and our relationship with nature. Otherwise, the paradigm of consumerism will continue to advance, with the help of the media and the highly effective workings of the market.”
Pope Benedict XVI
“Can we remain indifferent before the problems associated with such realities as climate change … ? Humanity needs a profound cultural renewal; it needs to rediscover those values which can serve as the solid basis for building a brighter future for all. Our present crises – be they economic, food-related, environmental, or social – are ultimately also moral crises, and all of them are interrelated. They require us to rethink the path which we are traveling together.” Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, If You Want to Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation – 2010 World Day of Peace Message, nos. 4, 5.
“Christians, in particular, realize that their responsibility within creation and their duty towards nature and the Creator are an essential part of their faith.”
Pope John Paul II 1990 World Day of Peace Message, no. 15.
“…how can we ignore the imbalances caused in the biosphere by the disorderly exploitation of the physical reserves of the planet, even for the purpose of producing something useful, such as the wasting of natural resources that cannot be renewed; pollution of the earth, water, air and space, with the resulting assaults on vegetable and animal life? All that contributes to the impoverishment and deterioration of man's environment to the extent, it is said, of threatening his own survival. Finally, our generation must energetically accept the challenge of going beyond partial and immediate goals in order to prepare a hospitable earth for future generations.“
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Message of His Holiness Paul VI to Mr. Maurice F. Strong, Secretary-General of the Conference on the Environment*
