Editorial

The Holy Father's Message for the World Day of Peace, today, touches on a very relevant and important theme: If You Want To Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation.

The message comes at a time when it is becoming all the more evident that the issue of environmental degradation challenges mankind to examine its lifestyles and the prevailing models of consumption and production, often unsustainable from a social, environmental and even economic viewpoint.

The Pope says that man's inhumanity to man has given rise to numerous threats to peace and to authentic and integral human development: wars, international and regional conflicts, acts of terrorism and violations of human rights. No less troubling are the threats arising from the neglect - if not misuse - of the earth and the natural goods that God has given us. It is thus imperative that mankind renews and strengthens "that covenant between human beings and the environment, which should mirror the creative love of God, from whom we come and towards whom we are journeying".

In previous messages, Benedict XVI had spoken of peace as "a gift of God in truth", as "the fruit of respect for the human person", as "an expression of the communion of the human family" and as "a call to eliminate all forms of poverty, material and immaterial". Thus, following this ideal "itinerary of peace", it is no surprise that the Pope now came to creation, that is the context in which humanity receives its vocation to peace.

The Pope's decision to speak on ecology is also being seen as a deliberate step to make it coincide with the 30th anniversary of the proclamation of St Francis of Assisi as patron saint of the environment. It also follows what Benedict XVI had to say in his latest encyclical, Caritas In Veritate, regarding nature as the wonderful result of God's creative activity, "which we may use responsibly to satisfy our legitimate needs, material or otherwise, while respecting the intrinsic balance of creation".

In the new message, the Pope presents a cosmic vision of peace, a peace that comes about in a state of harmony between God, humankind and creation.

The message reiterates the Church's call for a coherent approach to the universal destination of the goods of creation. It then underlines the urgent moral need for a renewed sense of intra-generational solidarity embracing time and space, especially in relationships between developing countries and highly-industrialised countries, while at the same time avoiding partial viewpoints that tend to exaggerate certain responsibilities.

The Holy Father does not propose technical solutions and does not seek to interfere in the policy of governments. Rather, he enumerates a series of perspectives for the shared progress of humankind. He proposes a number of very wise standpoints: natural resources should be used in such a way that immediate benefits do not have a negative impact on living creatures, human or otherwise, present and future; the protection of private property should not conflict with the universal destination of goods; human activity should not compromise the fruitfulness of the earth, for the benefit of people now and in the future.

The Pope stresses the need "for a balanced use of energy resources". While reminding us that this responsibility knows no boundaries as we are all responsible for the protection and care of the environment, he expresses the hope in the intelligence and dignity of man tracing a path of profound harmony, both interior and exterior, between the Creator, humankind and creation.