Canadian Bishops Publish Pastoral Letter on the Environment

In a new pastoral letter on the environment, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops says that while scientific and technical developments can help in restoring the environment, “we will not succeed without a personal and collective conversion.” This conversion is aimed at healing “the ruptures we have created with nature, with our neighbor and with God” through humanity’s role in air, water and soil pollution, destruction of the ozone layer, deterioration of large ecosystems and reduced biodiversity. “We must re-establish the links with nature that we have damaged. We know that we are tied much more closely to the environment in which we live than we had imagined.”

The letter, titled “Our Relationship with the Environment: The Need for Conversion” stresses to “convert is also to regain a sense of limit. It means adjusting our lifestyle to available planetary resources. Many are not renewable, and those that are have a pace of regeneration too slow for our impatient natures.”

“Since over consumption and waste have become a way of life, conversion implies that we free ourselves collectively from our obsession to possess and consume. In the words of renowned ecologist Pierre Dansereau, ‘joyful austerity’ or voluntary simplicity will help us to reorient ourselves on being instead of having. Our humanity will gain in the process.”

“It is manifestly unjust that a privileged few should continue to squander available resources, while masses of people are living in conditions of misery at the very lowest level of subsistence. Today, the massive threat of ecological breakdown is teaching us the extent to which greed and selfishness–both individual and collective–are contrary to the order of creation, an order which is characterized by mutual interdependence.”

But the bishops also noted some favorable developments: “Growing numbers of individuals are agreeing to make personal efforts in favor of the environment,” including using public transit, decreasing and recycling waste, purchasing local and regional products and produce, and lowering the thermostat at home. “Ecological awareness is emerging and becoming a fact of culture.”

Unfortunately, their otherwise excellent letter didn’t cite any examples of what is being done by individual bishops at their chancery or in their diocese.  In their role as teachers, how do they encourage conservation and care for the environment in say, religious education and faith formation programs? Are they willing to chastise Catholic politicians who have poor environmental voting records?

Share on Facebook