Pope Francis on protecting the environment

[UrbScotty]

“Let us,” he urged, “protect Christ in our lives, so that we can protect others, protect creation.” It means he explained in his simple way, It means protecting all creation, the beauty of the created world, as the Book of Genesis tells us and as Saint Francis of Assisi showed us. It means respecting each of God's creatures and respecting the environment in which we live.”

Pope Francis continued to lay out a Christian ethic of care. “It means protecting people, showing loving concern for each and every person, especially children, the elderly, those in need, who are often the last we think about. It means caring for one another in our families: husbands and wives first protect one another, and then, as parents, they care for their children, and children themselves, in time, protect their parents. It means building sincere friendships in which we protect one another in trust, respect, and goodness. In the end, everything has been entrusted to our protection, and all of us are responsible for it. Be protectors of God's gifts!”

He made a special plea to world leaders to join him in this ethic. “Please, I would like to ask all those with positions of responsibility in economic, political and social life, and all men and women of goodwill: Let us be protectors of God’s creation, protectors of God’s plan inscribed in nature, protectors of one another and of the environment.”

While he warned against “’Herods’ who plot death, wreak havoc and mar” humanity’s “countenance,” his message was a positive one, calling for goodness and tenderness in the treatment of the others and the world. Addressing the hard-heartedness many presume to be necessary for survival in this world, he declared, “We must not be afraid of goodness, nor even of tenderness!”

http://americamagazine.org/content/all-things/green-tradition