(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Thursday met with the Bishops of Malawi, who are in Rome on their ad limina visit. The southeast African country has a population of over 16 million, of whom around 20% are Catholic. Pope Francis met and spoke with the Bishops informally, and presented them with his prepared remarks in writing.
In his address, he expressed his “appreciation” for the “admirable spirit” of the Malawian people, noting that despite “serious obstacles, have remained strong in their commitment to family life.
“It is in the family, with its unique capacity to form each member, particularly the young, into persons of love, sacrifice, commitment and fidelity, that the Church and society in Malawi will find the resources necessary to renew and build up a culture of solidarity,” Pope Francis said.
“There is no aspect of family life – childhood and youth; friendship, engagement and marriage; spousal intimacy, fidelity and love; interpersonal relations and support – which is excluded from the healing and strengthening touch of God’s love, communicated through the Gospels and taught by the Church,” he continued. “There is scarcely a greater commitment that the Church can make to the future of Malawi – and indeed, to her own development – than that of a thorough and joyful apostolate to families.”
Pope Francis said a “natural result” of this apostolate will be an increase in religious and priestly vocations.
“As the Church in Malawi continues to mature, it is imperative that the strong foundations laid by generations of faithful missionaries be built upon by local men and women evangelizers,” he said.
The Holy Father concluded his address by speaking of those suffering from HIV/AIDS, particularly to the orphaned children and parents left without love and support as a result of this illness.
“Continue to be close to those in distress, to the sick, and especially to the children,” said Pope Francis “I ask you, particularly, to offer my gratitude to the many men and women who present Christ’s tenderness and love in Catholic healthcare institutions.”
The full text of the Pope’s prepared speech to the Bishops of Malawi is below
Dear Brother Bishops,
I offer a joyful welcome to you who have come from “the warm heart of Africa”, as you make your pilgrimage to Rome, “the warm heart of the Church”. I pray that the Lord will richly bless you during these days of prayer, meetings and dialogue. May Saints Peter and Paul, whom you have come to venerate, intercede for us all, so as to strengthen the bonds of spiritual communion between the Successor of Peter and the Church in Malawi. I thank Bishop Joseph Zuza for the kind words he offered on your behalf and on behalf of the priests, religious and laity of Malawi. I ask you kindly to assure them of my spiritual closeness.
I wish to begin by expressing my esteem for each one of you and for the good work that you do – indeed, that the Lord does through you – in your ministry to God’s holy people in Malawi. The effectiveness of your pastoral and administrative efforts is the fruit of your faith as well as of the unity and fraternal spirit that characterize your episcopal conference. The communion that you live, which is a sign of the oneness of God and of the unity of the universal Church, has enabled you to speak with one voice on matters of importance to the nation at large. In this way, together with your priests, you are ensuring that the Gospel message of reconciliation, justice and peace (cf. Africae Munus) is proclaimed for the good of all society. I pray that your fellowship in “one heart and one soul” (Acts 4:32) may continue to be a hallmark of your ministry, and that it may always grow and continue to bear rich fruit.
I wish also to express my appreciation for the admirable spirit of the Malawian people, who, though faced with many serious obstacles in terms of development, economic progress and standards of living, remain strong in their commitment to family life. It is in the family, with its unique capacity to form each member, particularly the young, into persons of love, sacrifice, commitment and fidelity, that the Church and society in Malawi will find the resources necessary to renew and build up a culture of solidarity. You yourselves know well the challenges and the value of family life, and, as fathers and shepherds, you are called to nurture, protect and strengthen it in the context of the “family of faith”, which is the Church. Indeed, for Christians, family life and ecclesial vitality depend on and reinforce each other (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 62, 66-67).
In this regard, dear brothers, it is essential that you keep always before you the needs, experiences and realities of families in your efforts to spread the Gospel. There is no aspect of family life – childhood and youth; friendship, engagement and marriage; spousal intimacy, fidelity and love; interpersonal relations and support – which is excluded from the healing and strengthening touch of God’s love, communicated through the Gospels and taught by the Church. There is scarcely a greater commitment that the Church can make to the future of Malawi – and indeed, to her own development – than that of a thorough and joyful apostolate to families. “Pastoral activity needs to bring out more clearly the fact that our relationship with the Father demands and encourages a communion which heals, promotes and reinforces interpersonal bonds” (Evangelii Gaudium, 67) – a humanizing and sanctifying process that begins, and finds its natural fulfilment, in the family. Thus, by doing everything you can to support, educate and evangelize families, especially those in situations of material hardship, breakdown, violence or infidelity, you will bring inestimable benefit to the Church and all of Malawian society.
A natural result of this apostolate will be an increase in young men and women who are willing and able to dedicate themselves to the service of others in the priesthood and religious life. As the Church in Malawi continues to mature, it is imperative that the strong foundations laid by generations of faithful missionaries be built upon by local men and women evangelizers. We can never be satisfied with past gains, but must always strive to share blessings and advance the mission of the Church (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 69). This is a sure sign that our motivation is a love which seeks the good of the other. Where genuine love for Christ and neighbour is fostered, there will be no shortage of generous priests and men and women consecrated to God in the religious life.
In a special way, I would ask you to be close to your priests, to listen to them and to support them. They often feel pulled in so many different directions, responding with charity and often at great personal sacrifice. They need to know that you love them as a father should. One indispensible way to show this paternal care is by providing candidates for the priesthood with an ever more complete human formation – upon which an integrated spiritual, intellectual and pastoral training depend. I encourage you to further your efforts to ensure that seminarians and religious be adequately prepared for ministry in your country, so that God who has begun the good work in them may bring it to completion (cf. Phil 1:6). Well formed priests and religious in turn will be able joyfully and selflessly to offer the fruits of their formation in the service of the new evangelization, so necessary for Malawi and the whole world.
I know that you are conscious of the Church’s responsibility to youth, who are a precious part of Malawi’s present and the promise for her future. Do not hesitate to offer them the truths of our faith and to show them the joy of living out the moral demands of the Gospel. Preach Christ with conviction and love, thus promoting the stability of family life and contributing to a more just and virtuous culture.
Dear brothers, the number of people in Malawi living in poverty and who have a much reduced life expectancy is a tragedy. My thoughts go to those suffering from HIV/AIDS, and particularly to the orphaned children and parents left without love and support as a result of this illness. Continue to be close to those in distress, to the sick, and especially to the children. I ask you, particularly, to offer my gratitude to the many men and women who present Christ’s tenderness and love in Catholic healthcare institutions. The service which the Church offers to the sick, through pastoral care, prayer, clinics and hospices, must always find its source and model in Christ, who loved us and gave himself up for us (cf. Gal 2:20). Indeed, how else could we be followers of the Lord if we did not personally engage in ministry to the sick, the poor, the dying and the destitute? Our faith in Christ, born of having recognized our own need for him who has come to heal our wounds, to enrich us, to give us life, to nourish us, “is the basis of our concern for the integral development of society’s most neglected members” (Evangelii Gaudium, 186). I thank you for being close to those who are ill and all the suffering, offering them the loving presence of their shepherd.
With these thoughts, dear brother Bishops, I commend all of you to the intercession of Mary, Mother of the Church, and with great affection I impart my Apostolic Blessing, which I willingly extend to all the beloved priests, religious and lay faithful of Malawi.
From the Vatican, 6 November 2014
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) The Director of the Sistine Chapel, Msgr. Massimo Palombella on Wednesday presented Pope Francis with a CD: “Habemus Papam. La musica del Conclave.” The CD contains the music used during the liturgical ceremonies surrounding the election of Pope Francis: The “Missa pro eligendo Pontifice”, the Veni Creator used during the entrance into the Sistine Chapel, the music of the Mass celebrated with the Cardinals the day after his election, the music of the Inaugural Mass of Pope Francis, and, for the first time, the 11 minutes containing the announcement “Habemus Papam” and the first words of Pope Francis on the evening of March 13, 2013.
In an interview with the Italian Catholic newspaper Avvenire, Msgr. Palombella said he wanted to have the real experience of the events.
“There is a cough, or a plane flying over St. Peter’s Square…it makes it seem as if you are there live,” he said.
The CD uses audio tracks provided by Vatican Radio and CTV.
The CD is the first of a planned series produced with Deutsche Grammophon. Others planned include the canonization of Popes St. John XXIII and John Paul II, as well as a CD of the repertoire of the Sistine Chapel Choir produced in a studio setting.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) A scheduled public talk by Cardinal Peter Turkson, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, was delivered Wednesday evening by Fr. Michael Czerny, S.J., as part of the “Faith, Food, and the Environment symposium”, which began on Wednesday and concludes Friday at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota.
Cardinal Turkson was asked by Pope Francis to help the Church focus its attention on the needs of West Africa as it suffers through the latest outbreaks of Ebola, and was therefore not able to keep the appointment.
The full text of the remarks are below
Symposium on Faith, Food and Environment
St. Paul, Minnesota
5 November 2014
Faith and the Call for a Human Ecology: The Vocation of the Agricultural Leader
On behalf of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and of its President Cardinal Peter Turkson[1], I thank you for the very kind invitation to the Council to participate in the Symposium on Faith, Food, and the Environment here at the University of St. Thomas in Saint Paul.[2] Thank you for the warm welcome
I. Introductory Remarks
Cardinal Turkson is very grateful for your invitation. If he were not required by the Vatican to help devise a response to the Ebola crisis, he would be here today where he has found exceptional collaborators at the John A. Ryan Institute for Catholic Social Thought. He would make special mention of the leadership of Professor Michael Naughton who has led the development of our very successful booklet on the “Vocation of the Business Leader”. This symposium is very much an outgrowth and applications of the insights in that work.
Two other touchstones are worth mentioning. In 2011, our Council issued a small booklet entitled Towards Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of Global Public Authority. In the midst of the major economic and financial system problems that continue to reverberate, this was an attempt to bring human dignity and the common good to the attention of world leaders who were reacting to the crisis. The production and distribution of agricultural goods and the behaviour of financial markets in relation to foodstuffs are very much part of this crisis, and perhaps this symposium will have good thoughts to add in their regard.
Just last week, Cardinal Turkson hosted a major three-day meeting of some 150 of the world’s marginalized people, representatives of grassroots movements concerned with housing, land and work. These include peasants who lose their land and livelihood to agribusiness, and agricultural workers trapped in poverty. On Tuesday morning (28 Oct), Pope Francis participated for several hours in joyful and lively encounter with them in the Old Synod Hall. First he met selected representatives, then he delivered an inspiring speech that has been described as a ‘mini-social encyclical’.[3] Several chosen spokespeople shared, including a man who had dedicated years to building up a cooperative, but then one of his colleagues “sold out to the usual interests who’re always in charge”.
Your topic is very much on the mind of the Pope; as has been announced, he plans to issue an encyclical early next year on creation, ecology and the environment. In fact, he assured his listeners last week, “Your concerns will be present in it.”
In my remarks, I wish to expound on the idea of vocation, then on agriculture as vocation. Following this, I will give you a glimpse of the origins and main ideas of the book on Vocation of the Business Leader and suggest some questions that link it to your subject. I will end with some reflections on the phrase “human ecology.”
II. Why “Vocation”?
Vocation connotes more than work, more than interest and aspiration. It means “calling”, and the Bible has God frequently calling individuals directly or through dreams, angelic messengers or other intermediaries. For instance, David had a job as a shepherd; God called him to do something else. Jonah ignored God’s call because he had no interest in lecturing the people of Nineveh so God sent a whale to deliver him. And when Jesus called Simon/Peter and Andrew, telling them “I will make you fishers of men”, they followed Jesus but they continued to be fishermen too; what distinguished their new calling or vocation was its larger perspective.
For our purposes in this symposium, “vocation” means a calling which comes from God our Creator. Creation and everything created is purposely willed by God. It follows that the meaning of everything that exists is determined with reference to God. Accordingly, the sense and value of human activity are not fully discovered without reference to the God of creation. All human activity that affects man, his existence and his world, must be related to God and be seen as a contribution to and a continuation of God’s work of creation by man, who is created in the image and likeness of God.
Catholic Social Teaching (CST) explains vocation as the calling to be completely authentic as individual persons and as social beings, based on our status as made in God’s image and relating to God (Gen 1:26-7). Vocation is the acknowledgement of and engagement in the essence of our nature as humans. Here are a few relevant passages:
Compendium § 19: the vocation of every person is to collaborate in “God’s plan of love in history”;
Compendium § 34: “The revelation in Christ of the mystery of God as Trinitarian love is at the same time the revelation of the vocation of the human person to love. This revelation sheds light on every aspect of the personal dignity and freedom of men and women, and on the depths of their social nature.”
Compendium § 36: “only in relationship with God can men and women discover and fulfil the authentic and complete meaning of their personal and social lives.”
Compendium § 101 (citing Laborem Exercens) says that “work has all the dignity of being a context in which the person’s natural and supernatural vocation must find fulfilment”
Pope Francis focuses on vocation in his Apostolic Exhortation. Besides speaking of religious life, Evangelii Gaudium says that “…the essential vocation and mission of the lay faithful is to strive that earthly realities and all human activity may be transformed by the Gospel…” (201). Then he singles out the worlds of politics (205) and business (203). As he wrote subsequently to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland:
“Business is – in fact – a vocation, and a noble vocation, provided that those engaged in it see themselves challenged by a greater meaning in life” (Ev. Gaudium, 203). Such men and women are able to serve more effectively the common good and to make the goods of this world more accessible to all.[4]
Business belongs to such human activity; and entrepreneurs should see themselves as called by God to exercise their necessary and important skills and activities in order to assist in continuing God’s work of creation. Properly understood, business leadership is indeed a calling, a vocation, a very noble role. The Church takes great joy in supporting and helping business people to respond appropriately to your vocation and to find the place of your activities in God’s design for man and his world.
III. A Vocation to Agriculture?
Agriculture is a constant backdrop in the Bible. The language of Jesus is full of illustrations from agriculture: tending flocks, planting, harvesting, managing agriculture with granaries and with payments to workers. Jesus assumes that his listeners understand and respect healthy agriculture; this allows him to make comparisons to agriculture in his parables. For instance, in the parable of the good seed, how seed reacts to different types of ground helps him to teach what happens when people react in different ways to the word of God (Mk 4).
This enriches our thinking as we turn to agriculture as a vocation. From the very beginning, the Creator asks us to “till” the earth and to “keep it” (Gn 2:15). It is part of our assignment as human beings. It cannot be ‘just a job’ if we treat it as part of “God’s plan of love in history” (CST 19).
Putting this sense of vocation positively (based on Compendium §§ 19 and 36), allow me to suggest that:
Agriculture is a vocation when we carry it out within God’s plan of love in history, and when it is the occasion for us to discover and fulfil the authentic and complete meaning of our personal and social lives.
How can we elaborate on this grand vision of agriculture as vocation?
I will try to do so with Vocation of a Business Leader as a model.
III. Origins and Use of Vocation of a Business Leader
How did it happen, two and a half years ago, that the Church issued a handbook on the Vocation of a Business Leader? The stimulus was the encyclical Caritas in Veritate of Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI. The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace collaborated in two very interesting conferences exploring the implications of Caritas in Veritate in the realm of business. These took place in Los Angeles in late 2010 and in Rome in early 2011. The outcome was a decision to write a handbook or vademecum for business men and women that translates specific principles of Catholic Social Teaching into practical ethical guidelines for making business decisions. The work was begun by an international group of some fifteen business people, managers, researchers and educators. The coordinator was Prof. Michael Naughton (University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota), and the working-group included the then President of the International Christian Union of Business Executives (UNIAPAC), M. Pierre Lecocq. I wish to thank them heartily, and many others who have worked on the document and its different language versions, published in collaboration with various partner organizations. The handbook appeared in its first editions, French and English, in early 2012.
The handbook is being used in a growing list of languages (now 15 completed and at least 2 underway).[5] It is being used in university courses, in discussion groups of business people, to stimulate research, in an ongoing blog,[6] and more.
IV. Vocation of a Business Leader: Outline and Key Ideas
LOGIC OF GIFT
The “logic of gift” is the keystone of voation of the business leader (VBL). It is articulated in Caritas in Veritate, where Benedict XVI observed that:
Every Christian is called to practise charity in truth in a manner corresponding to his vocation and according to the degree of influence he wields in the public sphere.[7]
The principle of generosity / gratuitousness and the logic of gift must find their place within normal economic activity and commercial relationships.[8]
Our very lives and the entire world we inhabit are gifts freely given by God – and this gift should inform how we act in our business endeavours. It humanizes and civilizes business, where businesspeople see themselves as stewards rather than owners, their wealth as common rather than just private goods, and their employees as persons rather than only as instruments of production.
The Vocation handbook points to these eternal implications at the very beginning: “In the Gospel, Jesus tells us: ‘From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked’ (Lk 12:48). Businesspeople have been given great resources and the Lord asks them to do great things. This is their vocation.”
CATHOLIC SOCIAL DOCTRINE
This gifted character of business carries social implications. Business leaders have significant means to undertake something, and with this comes a corresponding responsibility. The Vocation text sees business not in terms of a legal minimalism – “don’t cheat, lie or deceive” – but rather as a vocation that makes “an irreplaceable contribution to the material and even the spiritual well-being of humankind.” It is about a meaningful life that opens the businessperson to God’s will, and not simply their own will, in the day-to-day decisions of ordinary life, which gives us the capacity to share goods in common and build community.
This vision of business is grounded in CST. At its centre is the fundamental dignity of all human beings because we are made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:27). This expresses God’s infinite love for us. Faith denies that a loving God would wish untruth, bondage, injustice and strife for us. Rather, based on divine love and human dignity, our faith compels us to embrace four fundamental values: truth, freedom, justice and peace. Because they are grounded in our divinely and lovingly created human nature, we have an absolutely firm response when such values are challenged or denied.
Catholic Social Doctrine enunciates many other principles, some of which are especially pertinent to the world of business. Service to the common good comes before serving narrower interests. The goods or resources of the world have a universal destiny; creation is a gift to the whole of humanity, not just a part. We are called to act in solidarity with those who lack access to these goods – with the large portion of humanity who suffer in the midst of plenty.
This vision of business is not without significant tensions and is not easy to execute in today’s world. Business leaders experience great pressures; excessive competition, the demands for efficiency and profitability. Many external obstacles can also affect a business leader’s decisions, such as the absence of the rule of law or regulations, corruption, tendencies towards greed, or poor stewardship of resources. Chief among the obstacles at a personal level is a divided life which is one of the more serious errors of our age. The split between religious faith and day-to-day business practice can lead to imbalances and misplaced devotion to economic success.
SEEING, JUDGING, ACTING
These challenges demand more just and human structures, regulations, policies and practices; and they demand virtues from business leaders – those habits of work that make business people and the world better. For the business leader, one of the most important virtues is practical wisdom – how to be wise in practical affairs. Our handbook is structured on a framework that shows how a prudential leader can encounter the world of business by seeing the situation clearly, judging with principles that foster the integral development of people, and acting in a way which implements these principles in light of one’s unique circumstances. I will explain these three stages one by one, though it is clear that seeing, judging, and acting are deeply interconnected
When we attempt to see the world of business thoughtfully, thoroughly and fairly, we notice both good and evil factors at work. The handbook mentions four major “signs of the times” in particular, four significant factors facing leaders today.
Globalisation has brought efficiency, mobility and extraordinary new opportunities to businesses, but the drawbacks include greater inequality, economic dislocation, cultural steam-rolling, and the inability of governments to properly regulate capital flows.
Communications technology has enabled connectivity, new solutions and products, and lower costs, but its amazing velocity also brings information overload and rushed decision-making.
The rise of the financial sector has created ways to leverage capital to make it more productive, yet it has also intensified tendencies to commoditise all business relationships and reduce them to one value – price – whether that is the monetary value of the firm, the price of a product, or the cost of labour; all of which emphasise wealth maximisation and short-term gains at the expense of working for the common good.
Cultural changes in our era have led to increased individualism, more family breakdowns, and utilitarian preoccupations with oneself and “what is good for me”. As a result we might have more private goods but are lacking significantly in common goods. Business leaders increasingly focus on maximising wealth, employees develop attitudes of entitlement, and consumers demand instant gratification at the lowest possible price. As values have become relative and rights more important than duties, the goal of serving the common good is often lost.
Next, the handbook organizes insights into the judging required in business in three perspectives: good goods, good work, and good wealth.
The first objective is to produce Good Goods. Businesses attend to the needs of the world by producing goods that are truly good and services that truly serve. They make solidarity with the poor a facet of their service to the common good by being alert for opportunities to serve otherwise deprived and underserved populations and people in significant need.
Second, businesses should provide Good Work. By organizing good and productive work, businesses make a contribution to the community by fostering the special dignity of human work. Businesses are communities, not mere commodities! Further, they contribute to the full human development of employees by applying the principle of subsidiarity; that is, by providing them with opportunities to exercise appropriate authority as they contribute to the mission of the organisation. They also allow workers to influence the overall direction of the business and accept their right to participate in intermediary bodies such as unions.
The third objective is Good Wealth. By being good stewards of the resources given to them, businesses create sustainable wealth through efficient and product processes producing healthy profits. But creating wealth in a business is insufficient without the wider context of stewardship for the natural and cultural environment, and just distribution to all stakeholders who have made the wealth possible: employees, customers, investors, suppliers, and the larger community.
Turning to the third step, acting, the handbook urges business leaders to put aspiration into practice, word into deed, by following their vocation and letting themselves be motivated by much more than financial success or formed only by the “logic of the market.” What this kind of action calls for is that business leaders receive and accept what God has done for them and to have this gifted life inform and order the way they give and enter into communion with others in business. When businesspeople integrate prayer, the Sabbath, the scriptures, the gifts of the spiritual life, the virtues and ethical social principles into their life and work, they can overcome the “divided life” and receive the grace to foster the integral development of all business stakeholders. It is precisely this life of faith that can strengthen and embolden business leaders to respond to the world’s challenges not with fear or cynicism, but with the virtues of faith, hope, and love.
As very practical, well-aimed aids to action, the handbook offers two checklists. The first is a set of “Six Practical Principles for Business” that summarise the discussion of good goods, good work and good wealth. The second is “A Discernment Checklist for the business Leader” – nearly three dozen questions to help business leaders to deeply examine their own lives and the behaviour of their organizations in light of the Catholic social principles here presented. These three questions summarize the latter checklist:
As a Christian business leader, am I promoting human dignity and the common good in my sphere of influence ?
Am I supporting the culture of life; justice; international regulations; transparency; civic, environmental, and labour standards; and the fight against corruption?
Am I promoting the integral development of the person in my workplace?
V. Application to Agriculture
Of course, your interests are not business in general but the business of agriculture. Seeing how the Vocation book explores business leadership in general, I believe you will be able to apply it to the particular world of food production and marketing.
What are the unique features of the vocation of a leader in agriculture? I cannot give you answers, but I suggest that you look to the Vocation book for help in asking the right questions.
Thinking about the logic of gift, it is abundantly clear that agricultural leaders exercise influence over immense resources – the very land that feeds us and houses us, the water, the nutritional value of the soil. Is it legitimate to worry that humanity may now have tilled too much and kept too little? Can GMOs and chemical fertilizers make their contribution without inhibiting the preservation and continued spontaneous growth of God’s creation, the original gift to all?
How do agricultural leaders react to the central tenets of CST? For instance, is common good subordinated to ‘ability to pay’? Does subsidiarity influence the willingness of powerful corporations to allow and even assist other farming structures – family farming in some regions, subsistence farming in others – to flourish alongside agribusiness?
When it comes to seeing, we can ask about the influence of globalization and financialization on agricultural planning – do those plans reflect the goal of adequate nutrition everywhere, or do financial considerations push thoughts of food aside? One of the difficult cases is the reduction of capacity for local food production so as to grow ethanol-producing crops for distant customers – a clear case of the impact of living in a global economy.
When agricultural leaders judge about “good goods”, do they think about ‘what sells’ or do they focus on truly feeding a hungry world while stewarding the environment in a responsible and prudent manner? Do the production and distribution decisions address the rampant problems of malnutrition? And are long-term risks such as the growth of resistance to herbicides and pesticides included in how they assess technological innovations?
In the same way, thinking about “good work”, are migrant workers treated with human dignity and with fairness? Do policies and subsidies favour some forms of agricultural business over others without a compelling rationale in terms of human and environmental benefit?
The heading of “good wealth” is especially pertinent. Do agricultural leaders see themselves as stewards of the earth? Do global markets accept the food sovereignty of every country and region? Is wealth generated by agricultural business distributed and used to preserve nature and provide food for future generations?
Finally, I have one suggestion with regard to the acting of agricultural leaders. Before you sign off on an order, ask “Is this what is best for humanity and for the environment?” And realize that “best” is not a synonym of “most”. The most fertilizer may not be what is best. The most profit may not be what is best, any more than eating the most is best for one’s health! We must always try to do what is optimal. This may be neither ‘the minimum’ nor ‘the maximum’; for instance, ‘maximum yield’ in crops and in investments is a worthy objective only if it is an optimal strategy for human and environmental outcomes.
VI. Faith and the Call for a Human Ecology
So far I have not mentioned “human ecology”. Let me close with some thoughts on this phrase.
Our human bond with the earth is absolutely foundational. The second Genesis account, “Adam” comes from adamah or ground, earth. So too, “human” is grounded in humus, soil. Humanity was not created ex nihilo but ex adamah and humus. Without earth, there is no human being.
Moreover, our human story begins in a garden, not the wilds. And it involves more than the inexorable laws of nature. Humanity is the factor that opens the earth up to new possibilities and realizations. Are they new harmonies or new imbalances? The outcome depends on our actions.
When we care for the earth or misuse it, we care for ourselves or abuse ourselves. Because we are earth, and we sent forth as gardeners: our nature is to consciously work the soil, work on and within the ground from which God made us.
So there is a duality in the idea of “human ecology”. On the one hand, we know ourselves as God’s stewards of the earth. When we exercise stewardship or caring in the style of God, when we act in the name of God the Creator and in his image, we must adopt his style of love and communion. Let us seek beauty and harmony in carrying out this role. We cannot divorce ourselves from our instruments, so wonderfully fashioned by science and commerce. If machines and chemicals and investment strategies are hurting nature, we cannot wash our hands – it is we who introduced them into the garden.
Simultaneously, protecting creation means protecting something of which every human is a part. We are all creatures, we are nature, and we share the destiny of created nature. When we care for the environment, we care for life in general and thus for human life. And when our interventions in nature lead to changes in nature, these changes do not occur in some inert matter distant from us. We are changing ourselves too. The authentic wholeness, the integral self of every woman and man, is bound up in whatever we do in our natural environment.
So here’s the connection with human ecology. The way men and women treat the environment reflects how we think about and treat ourselves – and vice versa. Respect for human ecology lays down the limits and perspectives of development. The environment cannot be considered more important than humanity nor as just a warehouse of raw materials. Not to recognize and not to respect our full, integral reality is to poison the human environment at the same time as we poison the air and the water too.
Our faith calls us to this understanding of ourselves and our place in nature. For too long, we have allowed the colossal power of science, engineering and commerce to separate us from nature and treat it instrumentally. Thank you for listening to the call of faith. With prayer, with loving concern for all humanity and with the best that science and commerce have to offer, let us roll up our sleeves and return to the garden.
[1] Due to the Ebola crisis, Cardinal Turkson felt obliged to cancel his trip to the U.S.A. in favor of meetings at the Vatican to assess the situation and develop a strategic action plan to guide the Holy See’s response. Speaking in his place was Dr. Michael Czerny S.J.
[2] Hosted by the Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity, Catholic Rural Life, Farmers Union, John A. Ryan Institute for Catholic Social Thought, the University of St. Thomas, Minnesota Catholic Conference, and the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.
[3] http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/es/speeches/2014/october/document…
[4] Pope Francis, Message to the World Economic Forum, Davos-Klosters, 17 January 2014.
[5] As of November 2014: Arabic, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Russian, Slovakian, Slovenian, Spanish, Ukrainian (and next year Chinese and Thai)
[6] William Bowman, Catholic CEO: How Church teachings can help us build better organizations, http://www.catholicceo.net/catholic-ceo-blog
[7] Cf. Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, § 7.
[8] Cf. Caritas in Veritate, § 36.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Wednesday met with a group of canonists taking a course at the Tribunal of the Roman Rota. In his remarks , the Pope spoke about the importance of fairness and accessibility in the proceedings of Church Tribunals trying to adjudicate the validity of marriages.
“The Holy Father here takes the occasion, a good occasion indeed, to bring up again the concern he already previously expressed, more than once, to see the ecclesiastical procedure for dealing with marriage nullity cases carried out as expeditiously as possible – and possibly, to be also modified for the same purpose,” explained Msgr. David-Maria Jaeger, OFM, who serves as an Auditor [Judge] on the Roman Rota.
Listen to the interview with Msgr. David-Maria Jaeger, OFM:
“Now modifying, or simplifying, the procedure, is His own prerogative, and – as He mentions here – he has put in place a special Commission to present Him with suggestions to this end, and has appointed the Dean of the Roman Rota to preside over it,” said Msgr. Jaeger.
“Carrying out the procedures already in place as efficiently as possible is the responsibility of the Church’s judiciary, which is here once more being reminded of the seriousness of its duty to provide for the good of souls by doing justice in a timely manner,” he continued.
Pope Francis made his remarks before his General Audience, when he briefly greeted participants of a course offered by the Tribunal of the Roman Rota on “Instructing a Case for the Dispensation of a Marriage ‘Super rato et non consumato’” -valid, but unconsummated marriages – which can be dissolved under certain conditions according to Church law.
“The particular course taking place this week is contiguous to this matter,” Msgr. Jaeger continued.
“The dispensation from a valid but unconsummated marriage is a favour that the Pope alone may grant, but the enquiries necessary to put a report together on individual cases and sending them to Rome are the responsibility of the diocesan bishops and their staffs,” he said.
“This annual course is intended to train diocesan personnel from all over the world to do just that,” said Msgr. Jaeger.
“Then Pope Benedict XVI assigned to the Dean of the Roman Rota the task of organising and overseeing the papal commissions that study the cases that the diocesan chanceries send to Rome, and that make the eventual recommendation to the Holy Father to grant the requested favour, or else determine that the conditions for doing that have not been met, in the case concerned,” he said.
“It is a ministry distinct from that of adjudicating petitions to declare a given marriage invalid, but both ministries have this in common: that they are geared to legitimately freeing persons from the bond of a marriage that has turned out to have been an unhappy experience, and doing so in full accord with God’s Word and His law,” concluded Msgr. Jaeger.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Wednesday met with a group of canonists taking a course at the Tribunal of the Roman Rota. In his remarks, the Pope spoke about the importance of fairness and accessibility in the proceedings of Church Tribunals trying to adjudicate the validity of marriages. “The Holy Father here takes the occasion,…
Read more