“In dialogue with Christians of the various confessions we need to commit ourselves to care for the creation, without squandering the world’s resources and by sharing them in a spirit of solidarity”: that’s the appeal made by Benedict XVI during his Angelus address in Castelgandolfo on 27 August. “Environmental degradation makes the existence of the poor of the earth particularly unsustainable”, exclaimed the Pope, who called the creation a “great gift of God that is exposed to serious risks”. His remarks were prompted by the Day for the Safeguard of the Creation that was celebrated – for the first time in Italy – on 1st September. Instituted during the meeting of the permanent Council of the Italian Bishops’ Conference in January, the Day – explains a document of the episcopal Commission for social problems, work, justice and peace and the Commission for ecumenism and dialogue – is aimed among other things at reviving the objectives of the “Cartha Oecumenica” signed by the Christian Churches in 2001, on the basis of their “common concern” for the exploitation of the goods of the earth, which is taking place “without account being taken of their intrinsic value, without consideration of their finite nature, and without regard for the well-being of future generations”. All this, also in view of the Third European Ecumenical Assembly (Sibiu, Romania, 2007). Among the lifestyles stigmatised by the document of the Italian bishops are “a consumption of resources and a production of waste that far exceed the earth’s capacity for renewal, thus hindering the chances for life of future generations”. “We live in polluted cities, in an ever more impoverished nature, while increasingly we are forced to pose ourselves questions about the safety of what we eat”, warn the bishops. Not to mention “the poor of the earth”, for whom “the degradation of the environment is a critical factor, which makes unsustainable living conditions that are already extremely precarious”. Hence the appeal made by John Paul II in 2001 for “ecological conversion”, faced “by the threat of incumbent destruction”. In the ecumenical sphere, the proposal for a Day for the Creation dates back to 1989. First made by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, it was at the centre of the Second European Ecumenical Assembly in Graz (1997).
