Beyond visible beauty

A “message of good wishes” from Benedict XVI has been sent to the bishops and delegates for the safeguard of the creation of the European Bishops’ Conferences who participated in the “green” pilgrimage organized by the Council of the Bishops’ Conference of Europe (CCEE) from 1 to 5 September (reportage: click here). In a telegram signed by Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Pope urges the participants in the pilgrimage “to reflect on the important theme of the custodianship of the creation”, expressing the hope that this “significant event” would arouse a “renewed commitment to the protection of the environment”, and reaffirming the “indispensable need for respect for the divine gift of creation”. The pilgrimage led from Esztergom (Hungary) to the Marian sanctuary of Mariazell (Austria). Bratislava (capital of Slovakia) was reached by a boat journey along the Danube. There a working session was held with the President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, and Slovak minister Ján Figel. After that, on the afternoon of 3 September, the pilgrims transferred to St Pölten (Austria) for a moment of ecumenical prayer with the participation of representatives of various Christian churches. Then, on the following day (Saturday 4 September), they travelled by train and on foot on the last stretch of road in their journey to Mariazell.Responsibility of each. “Respect for the life of each person cannot be put on one side for questions regarding economic, industrial or agricultural production”, said Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, taking his cue from the last message of Benedict XVI for the World day of Peace, the title of which was adopted by the pilgrimage:- “If you want to cultivate peace, protect creation”. Each person must make his or her own contribution, added Cardinal Turkson, because “the protection and care of the environment are the responsibility of each” and know no “boundaries”. A “renewed global solidarity” for environmental questions “does not diminish the responsibility of a region, of a country or of an individual”, but in this perspective “it is essential, he said, that environmental standards be established that are sufficiently realistic to be satisfied and maintained”, for “those that go beyond a reasonable limit will easily be ignored”. But to define such standards, the cardinal insisted, world leaders need to recognize “that the protection of the creation is a means not only of avoiding environmental and ecological catastrophes, but also an essential means for peace”. A significant contribution from collaboration. Slovak Minister of Transport, Posts and Telecommunications, and former European Commissioner, Ján Figel’, in his address to the pilgrims, recurred to the motto of the European Union, “unity in diversity”. “When we speak of family, society or humanity, the most suitable expression we can use is unity in diversity”. For “in diversity – stressed Figel’ – each must feel himself equal to the other and, above all, each of us has a need of the other”. In this “community” vision of the world the Slovak minister especially underlined the importance of dialogue, understood as “a process of cooperation between family, churches and institutions that must necessarily be conducted in respect and in harmony, since – he concluded – only together can we make a significant contribution to the safeguard of the creation”.Ecumenical meeting and “prayer bridge”. The ecumenical prayer meeting in the Austrian cathedral of St. Pölten was attended by the Catholic bishop of the diocese, Mgr. Klaus Küng, the Orthodox Metropolitan of Austria and Exarch of Hungary, Michael Staikos, and the Evangelical representative of Lower Austria, Paul Weiland, as well as delegates of the European Christian Network for the Environment. During the celebration a “bridge prayer” was also recited simultaneously with the participants at the 14th International Congress of Renovabis, then being held at Munich in Bavaria on the theme “Being responsible for the creation – ecological challenges in Central and Eastern Europe”. “In this market system, Lord, where everything has a price but nothing has a value, where the future is sold in exchange for immediate profit, help us – says a passage of the prayer – to form in us an adequate ethical conscience that sees in the creation a richness of gifts for the whole of humanity and for future generations”. The deepest dimension. The rapport with our fellow-creatures and with the Creator was the theme of the reflections proposed to the participants by Werner Freistetter, Director of the Institute for Religion and Peace in Vienna and military ordinary for Austria, during the train journey through the hills of Austria to Mariazell on 4 September. Freistetter emphasized the importance of “not devoting our attention exclusively to the beauty of the creation and going beyond that to recognize God”. This, he said, is “the deepest dimension of each creature. He denounced the temptation to “replace God with nature” which is “the essential nucleus of every idolatry”.