Environmentalism has taken on theological overtones for many people. The head of the Catholic Church is considering elevating it to a sin, the Daily Wire reported. Speaking at the 20th World Congress of the International Association of Penal Law in Rome, Pope Francis said Christians have a duty to preserve the environment.
“We have to introduce – we are thinking about it – to the Catechism of the Catholic Church the sin against ecology, the ecological sin against our common home, because a duty is at stake,” he said.
Catholic author Dr. Peter Kwasniewski said the language would have to be framed in a way that illustrates that the sin would be against God rather than an inanimate object.
“There is no possible sin against planet Earth,” he said. “All sins are ultimately against God or those who are in God’s image. As all theologians have explained prior to the post-conciliar decline of theology, when we abuse the natural world or animals or plants, we are sinning against God their creator, who gave them to us to use for the right purposes and in accordance with their nature and ours.”
If a person were to abuse a tree or an animal, Kwasniewski said that the person would be in grave violation against God due to the natural order, not because an animal or a tree has any basic rights.
“Someone who tortures an animal or burns down a forest for fun is a sinner, not because the animal or the forest has rights, but because he offends God, the great king over all the earth, from whom all things come for our benefit and to whom they are ordered,” he said. “Man is obliged in justice to respect God’s gift and the order He has established; man must also respect the common destination of material goods, i.e., that God has made the earth for the benefit of all, not for the selfish benefit of a few,” he said.
–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice
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