A new ethical principle” “

The 4th meeting of the delegates of the European Episcopal Conferences for the environment will be held in Venice (Island of San Giorgio, International Salesian Institute) from 23 to 26 May 2002. Promoted by the Council of the European Episcopal Conferences (CCEE), in collaboration with the Office for social and labour problems of the Italian Episcopal Conference and the Lanza Foundation, the meeting will be attended by over fifty delegates representing over twenty episcopal conferences and various European church organizations. Preparations for the meeting, forming part of the process begun by the 2nd Ecumenical Assembly in Graz (1997), has involved the various European Churches in a programme of action and awareness-raising in terms of the safeguard of the creation. The particular theme to be tackled in Venice will be that of the relation between labour, environment and sustainability in its ethical and theological dimension. Labour and environment are two of the challenges that our societies are called to tackle with greatest urgency. The employment question and the environmental question have always been considered and presented as questions to be tackled separately, seeking different solutions for problems that have been regarded not only as different but as opposed to each other. Only recently was a reflection begun, and analyses and proposals were discussed, to overcome the traditional opposition between environment and labour and to ascertain the possible points of contact between them. Polices aimed at them need to be integrated: only thus can these two aspects that have so much importance for people’s lives, be kept together. A fundamental contribution in this direction has been made by the reflection on sustainable development. Sustainable development at the international level is defined as “a form of development that satisfies the needs of the present without compromising the capacity of future generations to satisfy their own needs”. From an ethical point of view, reflection on sustainable development maintains the centrality of the human person as a moral subject and recognizes that any type of life must be positively evaluated and respected. It also widens the confines of moral attention to include the rights of non-human life. The importance of the principle of sustainability has also been recognized at the ecclesial and theological level, where its recognition as a new principle of Christian social ethics (both in Catholic and in ecumenical reflection) is gradually gaining ground at the side of the traditional principles of personality, subsidiarity and justice, as the necessary adjustment to the evolution of human societies and the recognition of the close interdependence between environment and development. Sustainability is a principle that reflects the philosophy of the social doctrine of the Church which is based on the primacy of the human person, on the autonomy and responsibility of the intermediate bodies and on universal solidarity. It is therefore responsibility for the creation that imposes on European Christians the need to re-consider the meaning of work, and to channel it into forms respectful of the natural environment, as well as of the health of workers. A Christian view of time also requires that the dimension of the Sabbath as a day of rest, recuperation and contemplation be combined with work.