for December 31
The future of our planet is in our hands, in each of our hands. We appeal to you to be open to seeing the relationship between God, human beings and other creatures. Our own personal involvement and conversion are vital. We need to be free of a way of life that values consumption, convenience, wealth, status and economic growth above all else.
No 60 Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility, Pastoral Letter of Antilles EpiscopalConference, 2005
for December 24
We turn our attention to the urgency of securing our fresh water supply. It is imperative that water use be controlled. The full cooperation of every resident is urgent for the conservation of water. It is urgent too, that everyone realise that water is life, that water is God’s gift to everyone and to other living beings as well, and therefore think of ways that water can be conserved.
No. 59 Pastoral Letter of Antilles EpiscopalConference, 2005
for December 17
Care of the land also includes the handling of solid and liquid waste…. Recycling can be a great help… Every household, commercial enterprise and industry will have to cooperate to make recycling truly effective.
No. 57 Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility, Pastoral Letter of Antilles Episcopal Conference, 2005
for December 10
Care of the land will also involve the strictest monitoring of air and water pollution from toxic wastes resulting from rampant industrialisation.
No. 56 Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility, Pastoral Letter of Antilles EpiscopalConference, 2005
for December 3
Natural resources are not only limited, but also some are non-renewable. Hence the need to respect the integrity and cycles of nature … We cannot use with impunity the different categories of being, that is, animals, plants and natural elements. We are to consider the nature of each being and its mutual connection in an ordered system.
No. 41 Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility, Pastoral Letter of Antilles EpiscopalConference, 2005
for November 26
God has entrusted the whole of His creation to the human family to be cared for … Every man, woman and child in the world has a strict right to find in the world all that they need for their spiritual and material development. No one individual and no one nation have the right to possess more than they need when others lack the basic necessities of life.
No. 40 Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility, Pastoral Letter of Antilles EpiscopalConference, 2005
for November 19
Our landfills can pose a threat to the environment, especially when cans, aluminium foil, plastics and other non-biodegradable materials are dumped there… Non-biodegradable materials such as tin, aluminium and other metals take 100 to 500 years to degenerate. Seepage from these landfills may reach the water table and contaminate the ground water supply.
No. 25 Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility, Pastoral Letter of Antilles EpiscopalConference, 2005
for November 12
One of our greatest treasures is the Caribbean Sea, which possesses a diversity of life that is increasing daily as new species are being discovered. The Caribbean Sea is an excellent place of interdependence of live organisms living in harmony with nature. Yet our Caribbean Sea is fast becoming a locus for the unpleasant solid and liquid waste so characteristic of urban and rural life.
No. 16 Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility, Pastoral Letter of Antilles Episcopal Conference, 2005
for November 5
Traditionally, we have regarded other forms of nature as having value only insofar as they are valuable for us humans. However, an ecological worldview sees all forms of life as having their own worth and not just a usefulness for humans…. The earth is seen as having its own wondrous and absolute value independent of us; our duty is to live in harmony with it. – No. 35 Pastoral Letter of Antilles Episcopal Conference, 2005
for October 29
The UN Conference in 1992 stressed the need to pursue development without compromising the ability of future generations to develop. It pledged to be mindful of development’s stress on the planet’s beauty as well as resources, and to respect all other species as well as our own in future generations.
No. 6 Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility, Pastoral Letter of Antilles EpiscopalConference, 2005
for October 22
Care of the land remains one of the most important elements in environmental conservation. Particular attention has to be paid to the agricultural sector .… Encouragement and concrete incentives should be offered to farmers to produce as much food as possible, preferably organically grown, to feed our people.
No. 55 Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility, Pastoral Letter of Antilles Episcopal Conference, 2005
for October 15
As we partake of the bread and the Wine in the Eucharist our complacency should be challenged by the recognition that there is an inequitable distribution of food and drink. For many there is insufficiency, for others there is abundance. This should lead us to want to do something about this situation.
No. 47 Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility, Pastoral Letter of Antilles EpiscopalConference, 2005
for October 8
There is a real relationship between our public worship and the call to justice… An example of this is the Church’s insistence that clean water be used for the washing in Baptism. This insistence should help us to recognise that many people in the world do not have access to potable water and should spur us on to want to do something about it.
No. 47 Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility, Pastoral Letter of Antilles EpiscopalConference, 2005
for October
“The earth and its fullness belong to the Lord, the world and all that dwell in it” (Ps 24:1).
We are in the world not as owners but as tenants and stewards. The specifically Christian dimension of stewardship must include this responsibility for the integrity of creation, for our environment.
No. 2 Pastoral Letter of Antilles Episcopal Conference, 2005
for September 24
Human beings are called by God to appreciate the worth of other creatures and to observe the laws that God has put in nature itself. As responsible members of God’s creation, we recognise that creation belongs not to us but to God, and that God has entrusted to us the care and the use of creation in accordance with His plan.
No 43 Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility, Pastoral Letter of Antilles Episcopal Conference, 2005
for September 17
All religious traditions encourage simplicity of life. In the Christian tradition, this wisdom derives from the Lord’s own profound saying, ‘where your treasure is, there will your heart be too’ (Mt 6:21). The desire for affluence, for more and more possessions, for almost anything new, can begin to dominate us.
No. 61 Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility, Pastoral Letter of Antilles Episcopal Conference, 2005
for September 10
We urge our parishes to undertake practical programmes of action… These programmes of action could take a variety of forms, e.g. clearing polluted sites, creating green spaces on the church compound, campaigning to change lifestyles.
No. 45 Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility, Pastoral Letter of Antilles Episcopal Conference, 2005
for September 3
It is important to see in creation the image of the Creator and a first manifestation of God’s love. Since creation reflects and reveals the Creator, it was given to us for our admiration and contemplation. Our response to God’s gift of creation ought to be one of gratitude to God and to creation and a determination to care for and preserve the beauty of creation.
No. 42 Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility -Pastoral Letter of Antilles EpiscopalConference, 2005
for August 27
We encourage Caribbean theologians and ethicists to accompany scientific research in order to help all of us to understand more clearly the nature of creation and the true worth of every creature.
No. 62 Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility, Pastoral Letter of Antilles EpiscopalConference, 2005
for August 20
“How can we remain indifferent to the prospect of an ecological crisis which is making vast areas of our planet uninhabitable and hostile to humanity?”
Pope John Paul II, Novo Millennio Ineunte, 2000 No 43
Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility, Pastoral Letter of Antilles Episcopal Conference, 2005
for August 13
The reconciliation and restoration of all creation was achieved through Jesus’ resurrection. “In the transfiguration of the risen body of Christ begins the transfiguration of every creature, the ‘new creation’ in which all creation will be transformed.” John Paul II, 1989. We all have a role to play in preparing for this new heaven and this new earth.
No 39 Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility, Pastoral Letter of Antilles Episcopal Conference, 2005
for August 6
Pope John Paul II, looking at the entire world, stated that the ecological crisis is a moral problem. The exploitation of the resources of the earth, as well as pollution of the atmosphere, is due to a large extent to humans’ unethical treatment of the rest of creation. It is vital that our fundamental attitude to human and non-human nature be transformed. No. 30 Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility, Pastoral Letter of Antilles EpiscopalConference, 2005
for July 30
Harmony between humans and nature will be restored only when people determine to “be more” rather than “have more”.
No. 40 Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility, Pastoral Letter of Antilles Episcopal Conference, 2005
for July 23
God owns His world. We are responsible members of God’s community of life, answerable to God on how we exercise our responsibility to the rest of creation. The contrasting parables of the rich fool and the faithful servant (cf. Luke 12: 13-21; 41-48) seem applicable for our prayerful reflection in this regard.
No 34 Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility, Pastoral Letter of Antilles EpiscopalConference, 2005
for July 16
Nothing exists independently; each being has value of its own. The universe cries out to us, humans, to accept nurture and celebrate the diversity, beauty, interdependence and innate worth of all creatures and in this way preserve the natural order of creation.
No. 31 Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility, Pastoral Letter of Antilles EpiscopalConference, 2005
for July 2
“We highlight the injustice of human poverty. This is so because human beings constitute an integral part of the environment, the destruction of which impacts negatively on the poor. At the very heart of sustainable development is the quality of life of our people.”
One thing that can help you cialis generika delay it is dapoxetine. These systems generally contain two tanks that work together to raindogscine.com order cialis from canada pull problematic ions out of the water before it enters the home’s main plumbing network. But Xomax review convey that xomax works naturally to restrict the capillaries to expand and contract, so that blood flow and testosterone tend to be higher in the quality. cialis generic uk Drugs will only be indicated when the cause is either some health raindogscine.com on line viagra problem or side effect of some medication.
Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility, Pastoral Letter of Antilles Episcopal Conference, 2005
for June 25
As the Church grew, this radical form of material communion (Acts 2:44-5) could not in fact be preserved. But its essential core remained: within the community of believers there can never be room for a poverty that denies anyone what is needed for a dignified life.
Par 20, Encyclical Letter of Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est
for June 18
If we as Church are truly following our risen Lord, making his historical concerns our own and committing our lives to the coming victory of the reign of God, then we are compelled to be involved in critical peacemaking and economic issues where the shalom and well-being of all peoples, and indeed the whole earth are at stake.
Elizabeth Johnson, Consider Jesus, p. 78
for June 11
The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church is presented as an instrument for the moral and pastoral discernment of the complex events that mark our time; as a guide to inspire, at the individual and collective levels, attitudes and choices that will permit all people to look to the future with greater trust and hope.
No. 10 Compendium of Catholic Social Teaching
for June 4
Love faces a vast field of work and the Church is eager to make her contribution with her social doctrine, which concerns the whole person and is addressed to all people. So many needy brothers and sisters are waiting for help, so many who are oppressed are waiting for justice, so many who are unemployed are waiting for a job, so many people are waiting for respect.
Compendium of Catholic Social Teaching No. 5
for May 28
The persistence of many forms of discrimination offensive to the dignity and vocation of women in the area of work is due to a long series of conditioning that penalizes women, who have seen ‘their prerogatives misrepresented’ and themselves ‘relegated to the margins of society and even reduced to servitude.’
Pope John Paul II – Letter to Women, 3. (1995)
for May 21
Christian vocations are always vocations to earthly ordinariness and death, vocation to believe in the light shining in the darkness, to actualize love that seems to go unrequited, to enter into solidarity with the poor and the “shortchanged” – the brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ who are anything but the elite.
Karl Rahner, The Practice of Faith, p. 207
for May 14
Christian tradition has never recognised the right to private property as absolute and untouchable: “On the contrary, it has always understood this right within the broader context of the right common to all to use the goods of the whole of creation: the right to private property is subordinated to the right to common use, to the fact that goods are meant for everyone.”
No 177 Compendium of Catholic Social Teaching
for May 7
“The Christian knows that in the social doctrine of the Church can be found the principles for reflection, the criteria for judgment and the directives for action which are the starting point for the promotion of an integral and solidary humanism. Making this doctrine known constitutes, therefore, a genuine pastoral priority.”
No. 7 Compendium of Catholic Social Teaching
for April 30
Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal … Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you . Eph 4:30
for April 23
“Jesus Christ, Liberator, is a christological theme that evokes a new image of God, who is on the side of the oppressed with the aim to free them. It also lifts up a new image of the oppressed, of great worth, the privileged focus of God’s own care. Finally, it gives us a new image of discipleship, entering into the way of Jesus with the poor.”
Elizabeth Johnson, Consider Jesus , pg 93
for April 16
“ First of all then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for (rulers) and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God, our Saviour ” 1 Tim 2:1-5
for April 9
“The feminine genius is needed in all expressions in the life of society, therefore the presence of women in the workplace must also be guaranteed. The first indispensable step in this direction is the concrete possibility of access to professional formation.”
No. 295 Compendium of Catholic Social Teaching
for April 2
“The principle of the universal destination of goods requires that the poor, the marginalised and in all cases those whose living conditions interfere with their proper growth should be the focus of particular concern. To this end, the preferential option for the poor should reaffirmed in all its force.”
No. 182 Compendium of Catholic Social Teaching
for March 26
“… the Eucharist sets us on the way to a future we have to build. During its celebration we realise sacramentally the one body of Christ we do not yet manage to realise in the concreteness of our everyday life. . . It is not without reason that the Eucharist is often called ‘Mass’ or mission. We are on a mission.”
Joseph G Donders, Risen Life , pg 67
for March 19
“From Jesus of Nazareth, with many before him and many after him, wherever there has been true love, history has gone on, sinners have been forgiven and offered a future, which, it is hoped, they will accept.”
The Jesuit Martyrs of El Salvador Jon Sobrino SJ.
for March 12
“Persons with disabilities are fully human subjects, with rights and duties. . . they are to be helped to participate in every dimension of family and social life at every level accessible to them and according to their possibilities.”
No 148 Compendium of Catholic Social Teaching
for March 5
“A just society can become a reality only when it is based on the respect of the transcendent dignity of the human person. The person represents the ultimate end of society. Hence the social order and its development must invariably work to the benefit of the human person.”
Compendium of Catholic Social Teaching No. 132
for February 26
“We need to regain an awareness that we share a common destiny which is ultimately transcendent, so as to maximize our historical and cultural differences, not in opposition to, but in cooperation with, people belonging to other cultures”
Benedict XVI for the World Day of Peace, January 1
for February 19
“Peace is an irrepressible yearning present in the heart of each person, regardless of his or her particular cultural identity. …. All people are members of one and the same family. An extreme exaltation of differences clashes with this fundamental truth.”
Benedict XVI for the World Day of Peace on January 1 .
for February 12
“…whenever the integral development of the person and the protection of hi s fundamental rights are hindered or denied, whenever countless people are forced to endure intolerable injustices and inequalities, how can we hope that the good of peace will be realised?”
Pope Benedict XVI for the World Day of Peace, January 1
for February 5
“Justice, as well as charity, obliges you to respond to the calls of the poor.”
St Vincent de Paul (1635)
for January 29
“The economic well being of a country is not measured exclusively by the quantity of goods it produces but also by taking into account the manner in which they are produced and the level of equity in the distribution of income, which should allow everyone access to what is necessary for their personal development and perfection.”
No 303 Compendium of Catholic Social Teaching
for January 22
“The Church’s social doctrine is an integral part of her evangelising ministry. Nothing that concerns the community of men and women – situations and problems regarding justice, freedom, development, relations between peoples, peace – is foreign to evangelisation.”
No 66 Compendium of Catholic Social Teaching
for January 15
“Men and women who are made ‘new’ by the love of God are able to change the rules and the quality of relationships, transforming even social structures. They are people capable of bringing peace where there is conflict … of seeking justice where there prevails the exploitation of person by person.”
No 4 Compendium of Catholic Social Teaching
for January 8
“Justice is particularly important in the present-day context, where the individual value of persons, their dignity and their rights – despite proclaimed intentions – are seriously threatened by the widespread tendency to make exclusive use of criteria of utility and ownership.”
No. 202 Compendium of Catholic Social Teaching
for January 1
“Work is a good belonging to all people and must be made available to all who are capable of engaging in it. ‘Full employment’ therefore remains a mandatory objective for every economic system oriented towards justice and the common good.”
