Environment: The Wave
Saturday, 5 December 2009
Thousands of Catholics took part in a CAFOD supported campaigning day on climate change called The Wave in central London on Saturday 5 December.
Senior church leaders from many Christian traditions, including bishops from England and Wales, stood in solidarity to call for an “ambitious, fair and effective deal in Copenhagen”.
An ecumenical service - 'Time to Pray' - took place at Westminster Central Hall in which the Archbishop of Westminster, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols, urged people to consider their own lifestyles when thinking about climate change, and said that people should live more simple lives, not dominated by the demands of the consumer society.
The Most Rev Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, David Gamble, President of the Methodist Conference and Steve Clifford, Director of the Evangelical Alliance were amongst other Christian leaders speaking at the service.
This was followed by a march through central London designed to highlight climate change issues prior to the Copenhagen inter-governmental climate summit.
Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI, in his third Encyclial Caritas in Veritate, describes the Christian vision of nature as the fruit of God's creation:
"The environment is God's gift to everyone, and in our use of it we have a responsibility towards the poor, towards future generations and towards humanity as a whole. When nature, including the human being, is viewed as the result of mere chance or evolutionary determinism, our sense of responsibility wanes. In nature, the believer recognizes the wonderful result of God's creative activity, which we may use responsibly to satisfy our legitimate needs, material or otherwise, while respecting the intrinsic balance of creation. If this vision is lost, we end up either considering nature an untouchable taboo or, on the contrary, abusing it. Neither attitude is consonant with the Christian vision of nature as the fruit of God's creation."
Caritas in Veritate, Chapter 4, 48.
Read/download
Caritas in Veritate: Chapter 4 (pdf)
Pope Benedict also sent a statement to the UN climate change summit held on 22 September 2009 in New York.
Pope Benedict's statement to the UN climate change summit: New York, 22 September 2009 (pdf)
Bishops attending
Archbishop Vincent Nichols
Westminster
President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales
Bishop Declan Lang
Clifton
Chair of the Bishops' Conference Department of International Affairs
Bishop John Rawsthorne
Hallam
Chair of CAFOD
Archbishop Vincent Nichols
The needs of the world’s poorest and most disadvantaged are at the centre of the debate about climate change – that's what Archbishop Vincent Nichols told thousands of Christians at 'Time to Pray' - an ecumenical service about the environment and climate change held at London's Westminster Central Hall on 5 December 2009.
Live Simply
Archbishop Nicholas urged people to consider their own lifestyles when thinking about climate change, and said that people should live more simple lives, not dominated by the demands of the consumer society.
“Pope Benedict XVI in his statement to the UN Climate Change Initiative in September this year” said Archbishop Nichols, “made clear that since the natural environment is given by God to everyone, so our use of it 'entails a personal responsibility towards humanity as a whole, particularly towards the poor and towards future generations’.”
“This is why we are right to repeat again and again the straightforward appeal: ‘Live simply!’; ‘Live simply so that others may simply live and so that our planet may be cared for and not exploited. Of course we sense within us never-ending demands, often provoked by the culture of our consumer society. But we must look hard at the way we live our lives and consider again those whose future is threatened by the effects of our own lifestyles. Only when we are clearly prepared to change the way we live will politicians be able to achieve the change we say we want to see.”
Role of technology
Archbishop Nichols also said that the development of technology, one of the gifts of God’s creation, would play an important role in resolving environmental problems.
“Technological advance is a crucial part of the way we will find solutions to the problems caused by climate change. Technology, of course, is not morally neutral. Rather its proper use is guided always by its effect on the common good. So today let us say, let the genius of our finest minds serve the needs of all, and the needs of our environment.”
Read/download
Archbishop Nichols' address at The Wave climate event - 5 December 2009 (pdf)
livesimply
livesimply is a project based on a radical idea: that God calls us to live simply.
We are asked to look hard at our lifestyles, and to choose to live simply, sustainably and in solidarity with the poor. It's not just about money. It's a challenge to reflect, celebrate and take action in order to work for justice, and to be happier in ourselves as a result. It's about seeking what we need rather than grasping for more, sharing not hoarding.
"You are not making a gift of what is yours to the poor, but you are giving them back what is theirs… The earth belongs to everyone, not to the rich." St Ambrose.
The Call of Creation
In 2002, the Bishops of England and Wales released a document on the natural environment and Catholic social teaching. It was called The Call of Creation: God's invitation and the Human Reponse.
The bishops called for urgent action to protect our earthly home from further destruction.
"A way of life that disregards and damages God's creation, forces the poor into greater poverty, and threatens the right of future generations to a healthy environment and to their fair share of the earth's wealth and resources, is contrary to the vision of the Gospel."
Introduction, The Call of Creation
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Links
View images from the event on our Flickr photostream.
CAFOD (Catholic Agency for Overseas Development)