It’s everyone’s garden” “

The 6th Consultation promoted by the Council of the Episcopal Conferences of Europe (CCEE) on “The responsibility of the Churches and religions for the creation” ended at Namur (Belgium) on 6 June. It was an occasion for exchange and dialogue between different communities and dialogue with other religious traditions, without forgetting the reflection on the ‘political’ impact of responsibility for the creation. The delegates also formulated some proposals for continuing the commitment of the churches to the safeguard of the creation, also in view of the third European ecumenical assembly (Romania, 2007). Here is a résumé of some of the interventions. A POLITICAL PERSPECTIVE. “The expectations and hopes based on the moral strength and common witness of the Churches and religious minorities in response to the massive deficits of long-term and global responsibility in the modern world are very strong”, said Markus Vogt, of the organizing committee, opening the discussion on the ecumenical responsibility for sustainable development and the ‘political’ contribution of the churches. The apostolic Nuncio to the European Community, Msgr. FAUSTINO SAINZ MUNOZ, further accentuated this responsibility. He pointed out that “the basic inspiration of the concern of the Holy See for the environment is religious in nature, but it also contains references to several fundamental moral considerations that are also shared by persons of good will. Through its rich magisterium and innumerable interventions, the Holy See proposes – especially in the aftermath of the Johannesburg summit – a reflection on the term human ecology, the need for ecological conversion, the support for a change of models of production and consumption, and a serious examination of the problem of poverty”. Also political in the broad sense is the perspective traced by Luckas Vischer, of the Christian ecumenical network for the environment (ECEN): “The environment – he said – is a global issue and requires global solutions, beginning from local communities. The Churches offer concrete witness. That’s what happened for example with regard to climate change, following the first ecumenical assembly in Basel. The testimonies of the Christian communities were then collected in the ECEN network and helped pose the question of what sustainable lifestyles could be practised, what common responsibility assumed, also in relation to official documents such as the Kyoto Protocol”. The level of specific political measures was also addressed in the intervention of Francis Jacobs, secretary of the EU parliamentary Commission for the environment, public health and consumer policy. “It’s not easy – he said – to tackle the issues of the environment in a coordinated manner at the European level, also due to the complexity of the situations that are determined and the interlacing of interests and competences, from industrial to transport policy. New problems are also posed by enlargement that sees the arrival in Europe of countries with very different situations and focuses in terms of environmental issues, linked to different models of development. The reflections to which religions contribute can become a useful bond to bring different experiences together”. INTER-RELIGIOUS DIALOGUE “The terrain of ecology is favourable to the dialogue between religions”, said Mahi Yacoub, professor of Islamic religion in Brussels. “Islam – he explained – considers the natural world as donated by God and man as responsible for it. That’s why ecology opens the question of human responsibility in the world. Each person is responsible for others and must defend nature for the future, in a perspective of sustainable development. On such issues it is easy to promote inter-religious dialogue: a common awareness of the problems exists”. According to Albert Guigui, chief rabbi of Brussels, “we find in the precepts of the Bible the idea of the conservation of the environment. The Bible asks us to respect trees, and the creation narrative in Genesis proposes a gardener God, who entrusts the task of tending it to man, telling him to continue his work and not to destroy it. The defence of the environment must not be theoretical, but a teaching given to children from infancy on. That’s why there is a tradition of planting a cedar or cypress in Jerusalem, whenever a child is born”. Meeting and dialogue between the religions on environmental issues are possible also in the view of the Buddhist exponent, the venerable Lama Karta. “The condition for a positive approach to the environment – he explained – is the overcoming of illusory egoism. We all need to reflect on the consequences of so many human attitudes that are disrespectful of nature”.