Pope Benedict XVI's 2010 World Day of Peace Message


Ten Commandments for the Environment
cover image

"IF YOU WANT TO
CULTIVATE PEACE,
PROTECT CREATION"


Excerpts:

Is it not true that
what we call “nature”
in a cosmic sense
has its origin in
“a plan of love and truth”?

The goods of creation belong to humanity as a whole.
Yet the current pace of environmental exploitation is seriously
endangering the supply of certain natural resources not only for the
present generation, but above all for generations yet to come.

A greater sense of intergenerational solidarity is
urgently needed. . . . The ecological crisis shows the
urgency of a solidarity which embraces time and space.

If you want to cultivate peace, protect creation.
The quest for peace by people of good will surely would
become easier if all acknowledge the indivisible relationship
between God, human beings and the whole of creation.

May this be clear to world leaders and to those at every level
who are concerned for the future of humanity:
the protection of creation and peacemaking
are profoundly linked!

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