Aug 26, 2009 / 09:09 am
Wednesday's general audience was held at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, where Pope Benedict XVI spoke about the precious gift of Creation, emphasizing that humanity's treatment of the environment impacts “integral human development.”
“The different phenomena of environmental degradation and natural catastrophes,” Pope Benedict explained, “which unfortunately occur all too often, remind us of the urgency of dutiful respect toward nature, recovering and valuing a correct relationship with the environment each day.”
Returning to a message from his recent encyclical and his upcoming message for the World Day of Peace, Pope Benedict said that protecting the environment and being good stewards of it are “intimately linked with integral human development.”
“In my recent encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, I referred to such questions recalling the ‘pressing moral need for renewed solidarity’ not only between countries but also between individuals, since the natural environment is given by God to everyone,” Benedict XVI added. “Our use of it entails a personal responsibility towards humanity as a whole, particularly towards the poor and towards future generations.”