Pope at audience: Counter a culture of waste with solidarity
(Vatican Radio) When stock markets drop ten points its ‘a tragedy’ but starving children,
homeless people dying on our streets, people disposed of like trash - such as the
unborn or the elderly - has become the norm.
This is the result of a
culture of waste, of our being unable to ‘read the signs’ of God’s creation, His free
gift to us, and of allowing money and not man rule society. A culture of solidarity
should prevail over our culture of waste, because when we care for and cultivate creation
– including the human person – when we share our resources, we all have enough.
This
Wednesday Pope Francis dedicated his general audience with thousands of pilgrims and
visitors to St Peter’s square to the UN World Environment Day. Emer McCarthy reports:
Below
please find a Vatican Radio translation of the Holy Father’s catechesis:
Catechesis
Dear
brothers and sisters, good morning!
Today I want to focus on the issue of the
environment, which I have already spoken of on several occasions. Today we also mark
World Environment Day, sponsored by the United Nations, which sends a strong reminder
of the need to eliminate the waste and disposal of food.
When we talk about
the environment, about creation, my thoughts turn to the first pages of the Bible,
the Book of Genesis, which states that God placed man and woman on earth to cultivate
and care for it (cf. 2:15). And the question comes to my mind: What does cultivating
and caring for the earth mean? Are we truly cultivating and caring for creation? Or
are we exploiting and neglecting it? The verb "to cultivate" reminds me of the care
that the farmer has for his land so that it bear fruit, and it is shared: how much
attention, passion and dedication! Cultivating and caring for creation is God’s indication
given to each one of us not only at the beginning of history; it is part of His project;
it means nurturing the world with responsibility and transforming it into a garden,
a habitable place for everyone. Benedict XVI recalled several times that this task
entrusted to us by God the Creator requires us to grasp the rhythm and logic of creation.
But we are often driven by pride of domination, of possessions, manipulation, of exploitation;
we do not “care” for it, we do not respect it, we do not consider it as a free gift
that we must care for. We are losing the attitude of wonder, contemplation, listening
to creation; thus we are no longer able to read what Benedict XVI calls "the rhythm
of the love story of God and man." Why does this happen? Why do we think and live
in a horizontal manner, we have moved away from God, we no longer read His signs.
But
to "cultivate and care" encompasses not only the relationship between us and the environment,
between man and creation, it also regards human relationships. The Popes have spoken
of human ecology, closely linked to environmental ecology. We are living
in a time of crisis: we see this in the environment, but above all we see this in
mankind. The human person is in danger: this is certain, the human person is in danger
today, here is the urgency of human ecology! And it is a serious danger because the
cause of the problem is not superficial but profound: it is not just a matter of economics,
but of ethics and anthropology. The Church has stressed this several times, and many
say, yes, that's right, it's true ... but the system continues as before, because
it is dominated by the dynamics of an economy and finance that lack ethics. Man is
not in charge today, money is in charge, money rules. God our Father did not give
the task of caring for the earth to money, but to us, to men and women: we have this
task! Instead, men and women are sacrificed to the idols of profit and consumption:
it is the "culture of waste." If you break a computer it is a tragedy, but poverty,
the needs, the dramas of so many people end up becoming the norm. If on a winter’s
night, here nearby in Via Ottaviano, for example, a person dies, that is not news.
If in so many parts of the world there are children who have nothing to eat, that's
not news, it seems normal. It cannot be this way! Yet these things become the norm:
that some homeless people die of cold on the streets is not news. In contrast, a ten
point drop on the stock markets of some cities, is a tragedy. A person dying is not
news, but if the stock markets drop ten points it is a tragedy! Thus people are disposed
of, as if they were trash.
This "culture of waste" tends to become the common
mentality that infects everyone. Human life, the person is no longer perceived as
a primary value to be respected and protected, especially if poor or disabled, if
not yet useful - such as the unborn child - or no longer needed - such as the elderly.
This culture of waste has made us insensitive even to the waste and disposal of food,
which is even more despicable when all over the world, unfortunately, many individuals
and families are suffering from hunger and malnutrition. Once our grandparents were
very careful not to throw away any leftover food. Consumerism has led us to become
used to an excess and daily waste of food, to which, at times, we are no longer able
to give a just value, which goes well beyond mere economic parameters. We should all
remember, however, that throwing food away is like stealing from the tables of the
the poor, the hungry! I encourage everyone to reflect on the problem of thrown away
and wasted food to identify ways and means that, by seriously addressing this issue,
are a vehicle of solidarity and sharing with the needy.
A few days ago, on
the Feast of Corpus Christi, we read the story of the miracle of the loaves: Jesus
feeds the crowd with five loaves and two fishes. And the conclusion of the piece is
important: " They all ate and were satisfied. And when the leftover fragments were
picked up, they filled twelve wicker baskets" (Lk 9:17). Jesus asks his disciples
not to throw anything away: no waste! There is this fact of twelve baskets: Why twelve?
What does this mean? Twelve is the number of the tribes of Israel, which symbolically
represent all people. And this tells us that when food is shared in a fair way, with
solidarity, when no one is deprived, every community can meet the needs of the poorest.
Human ecology and environmental ecology walk together.
So I would like us all
to make a serious commitment to respect and protect creation, to be attentive to every
person, to counter the culture of waste and disposable, to promote a culture of solidarity
and of encounter. Thank you.
Summary in English Dear
Brothers and Sisters: Our Audience today coincides with World Environment Day, and
so it is fitting to reflect on our responsibility to cultivate and care for the earth
in accordance with God’s command (cf. Gen 2:15). We are called not only to
respect the natural environment, but also to show respect for, and solidarity with,
all the members of our human family. These two dimensions are closely related; today
we are suffering from a crisis which is not only about the just management of economic
resources, but also about concern for human resources, for the needs of our brothers
and sisters living in extreme poverty, and especially for the many children in our
world lacking adequate education, health care and nutrition. Consumerism and a “culture
of waste” have led some of us to tolerate the waste of precious resources, including
food, while others are literally wasting away from hunger. I ask all of you to reflect
on this grave ethical problem in a spirit of solidarity grounded in our common responsibility
for the earth and for all our brothers and sisters in the human family.
Greeting:
I
offer an affectionate greeting to all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors present
at today’s Audience, including those from England, Scotland, the Netherlands, Nigeria,
Singapore and the United States. God bless you all!