Cardinal Turkson: Six 'doors' for the Care of Creation

(Vatican Radio) ‘Care for all Creation: a door to our common home’ was the title of a lecture by Cardinal Peter Turkson, head of the Pontifical Justice and Peace Council in London on Friday. In his address for the Paul VI Memorial Lecture, hosted by the Catholic aid and development agency CAFOD, the cardinal explored Pope Francis’ recent encyclical, Laudato Si’, proposing six ‘doors’ through which to approach the current crises facing our world.

Philippa Hitchen reports: 

Speaking just days before the Pope will open the Holy Door of St Peter’s Basilica to inaugurate the Jubilee year of mercy, Cardinal Turkson said the first key point to remember is that the global  crises of injustice and environmental destruction affect all people and every part of our world.

Secondly, he said, everyone must act in responding through the most appropriate means, from lobbying politicians – as Catholic bishops did in their appeal to  leaders attending the Paris climate summit – to simpler ways of saving energy and recycling waste.

A third ‘door’ through which to view the current environmental crisis, the cardinal said, is to understand how all of creation is inter-connected, thus how we treat the earth affects how we treat our fellow human beings.

Fourthly, he said, we must be truthful in identifying the urgency of our situation and fifthly we must be open to dialogue and seeking solutions in solidarity with all people of good will.

The sixth and final ‘door’ that Cardinal Turkson suggested was the deeper dialogue of prayer which, he said, can lead to profound interior conversion. We need to adopt “a bigger, higher vision” for the future of our planet, he said, and “prayer can get us looking and yearning and hoping in the right direction”.