Still a resource for everyone?” “

The meeting of the workgroup “Safeguard of the Creation” was held at the Abbey of Benediktbeuren (Germany) on 8-9 February. Established within the Council of the European Episcopal Conferences (CCEE) with the aim of rooting this issue firmly in the life of the Church, the workgroup also discussed the 5th Consultation of the Episcopal Conferences on the safeguard of the creation, due to be held this year in Wroclaw, in Poland, from 15 to 18 May. In the light of this consultation, we here publish a reflection by Karl Golser, theologian and member of the CCEE workgroup, on responsibility for the creation. The UNO has declared 2003 international year of water. Water, indispensable for life, is beginning to become a scarce commodity, especially clean drinking water. A large part of the populations not only of Africa, but also of various Latin-American and Asian countries, are forced to drink dirty and polluted water. The consequences for their health are all too evident. That’s why, at the end of the World Summit in Johannesburg, held from 26 August to 4 September 2002, the objective was formulated of halving by 2015 the number of people who don’t have access to clean water. On the other hand, there is enormous wastage of this precious resource: it’s enough to think of how much water in southern Italy is lost before it even reaches the taps. Major energy and crop irrigation projects are also dependent on water. The gradual rise in the earth’s temperature is melting the huge water reserves formed by the glaciers. It is predicted that future wars will be fought for the possession of water. Against this background, the Christian Churches have long been active. Apart from rediscovering the wealth of references to water and the rich symbology of water in the Bible and in the liturgy – not least the fundamental importance of baptism, – the Churches have also taken steps to heighten ecological awareness. “The commitment to the safeguard of the creation does not represent just one field of action among many others, but must constitute an essential dimension of the life of the Church”, declares, for example, the first of the recommendations for action made by the European Ecumenical Assembly of Graz in 1997. Since then the Council of the Episcopal Conferences has organized four consultations on this issue at the European level – the last was held in Venice in May 2002, while the next is due to be held in Poland in May 2003. At the consultation in Venice, for example, an ecumenical celebration using the element of water was held in the church of San Geremia. The ecumenical association “Church and Environment (OEKU), founded at the ecumenical level in Switzerland in 1986, will similarly place the celebration of its annual day for the creation in 2003 under the sign of water. Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew has for years been organizing pilgrimages, by sea or by river – in the Black Sea, on the Danube, or as last year along the Adriatic – to draw attention to our common responsibility for the creation entrusted to us. Last year’s pilgrimage ended in Venice in June 2002 with a joint appeal by Pope John Paul II and the Patriarch, declaring: “Respect for the creation derives from the respect for life and human dignity. Only if we recognize that the world is created by God, can we discern an objective moral order within which to articulate a code of environmental conduct. Seen in this light, Christians and all believers have a specific duty to proclaim the moral values and to educate people in ecological awareness, which is no other than assuming responsibility for ourselves, for others and for the creation.”