Vatican official calls for greater commitment to sustainable energy
July 17, 2014
The Holy See supports the goal of sustainable energy for all, and achieving this goal requires a “radical paradigm shift,” the secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace said at a recent forum held at the headquarters of the United Nations.
Archbishop Mario Toso’s remarks, delivered on June 6, were published in the July 17 edition of L’Osservatore Romano.
Citing Pope Francis, who said in his May 21 general audience that creation is “the marvelous gift that God has given us, so that we will take care of it and harness it for the benefit of all, always with great respect and gratitude,” Archbishop Toso said that the paradigm shift is required in behavior as well as in the “manner of perceiving the economy and development.”
Businesses, he continued, must abandon “the opportunism, the cynicism” associated with merely appearing “green,” and instead “engage with sincerity and responsibility for the common good in the long term.”
Archbishop Toso added that “it is necessary to establish a hierarchy among the priorities of consumption and distribution on the basis of criteria of need, justice, equity and solidarity, which will help generate significant changes and responsible styles of life.”
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Further information:
- Energia centro nevralgico di tante sfide attuali (L’Osservatore Romano, p. 2)
- Primer Fórum anual Sustainable Energy for All con motivo del lanzamiento de la United Nations Decade of Sustainable Energy for All (Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace)
- Sustainable Energy for All Forum
- Pope Francis: General audience (5/21/14)
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Posted by: claude-ccc2991 -
Jul. 18, 2014 3:50 PM ET USA
After 20 years the massive amount of steel and concrete that goes into each wind tower has to be replaced. Steel has to be recast. Concrete can't be "born again"; it must be made fresh. "Renewable" energy isn't really renewable because the infrastructure needed to collect it isn't renewable. Nor is it "sustainable", since the wind and the sun (clouds) come and go as they wish. The world runs on constant predictable electrical energy, and wind and solar are neither constant nor predictable.
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Posted by: samuel.doucette1787 -
Jul. 18, 2014 8:33 AM ET USA
Religious persecution going on around the world, and irrelevant bureaucratic statements addressing so-called "climate change" are still being put out? I realize bureaucracies take on a life of their own, but between the USCCB and this peace and justice nonsense, the more urgent issues of the day (life, militant secularism, and militant Islam) are getting crowded out.
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Posted by: normnuke -
Jul. 17, 2014 11:47 AM ET USA
Before we can produce a 'radical paradigm shift' which will result in caring and sustainable energy for all we must produce and sustain a radical gobbledygook shift for all. Oh, wait. We have.
