Pope Helps Make Ecology a Major Concern of Religion

Organized religion has taken increasing note of environmental danger signals.

In a departure from usual themes for his annual peace message on New Year’s Day, Pope John Paul II issued a call for greater awareness of environmental concerns, equating ecological destruction with a “genuine contempt” for humanity.

The speech linked disregard for nature and plundering of natural resources to a decline in the quality of life. That decline, he said, leads to a “sense of precariousness and insecurity” that creates “a seedbed for collective selfishness, disregard for others and dishonesty.”

The Pope’s address was warmly received by a number of environmental and religious activists involved in the North American Conference on Religion and Ecology. The group was founded in March, 1989, specifically “to help the North American religious community enter into the environmental movement in the 1990s, with more informed understanding, deeper commitment and a dynamic sense of environmental service.”

“The Pope, for the first time, has given high priority to environmental concerns,” said Donald B. Conroy, conference president. “The theological and ethical implications of this pontifical statement are enormous. In this one statement, the Pope has raised major eco-justice questions underlying the global search for peace.”

Establishment of the group, based in Washington, is one of a number of developments showing that concern for the environment is fast becoming a major issue of the new decade for religious groups.

In addition to the religious-legislative “Global Forum on Environment and Development” next week in Moscow, the World Council of Churches in March will hold a worldwide gathering on “Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation” in Seoul, South Korea, to consider an agenda heavy with environmental issues.

The papal message at the start of the year said depletion of the Earth’s ozone layer and the related “greenhouse effect” are the results of industrial practices that have shown little regard for delicate ecological balances. Redressing environmental damage will not be possible, the Pope said, without “directly addressing the structural forms of poverty that exist throughout the world.”

The Pope said it is necessary for the religious community to address the environmental effects of war, of a life style that embraces unbridled consumerism and of “indiscriminate application of advances in science and technology.”