Vatican stresses environmental concerns in annual message to Buddhists
May 17, 2010
In an annual message to the world's Buddhists, the Vatican has emphasized the prospects for cooperation in work to protect the environment.
Cardinal Jean Louis Tauran, the president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialouge, signed the annual message, which is timed for the Buddhist celebration of Vesakh, the festival of light. In the message he speaks of the need to safeguard the earth's resources and "protect mankind from self-destruction."
"Our responsibility to protect nature springs, in fact, from our respect for one another; it comes from the law inscribed in the hearts of all men and women," the Vatican statement says. It goes on to stress "our shared convictions about the inviolability of human life at every stage and in every condition, the dignity of the person and the unique mission of the family, where one learns to love one’s neighbor and to respect nature."
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Posted by: lynnvinc7142 -
May. 19, 2010 2:53 PM ET USA
This is what I love about BXVI. He understands environmental harms kill mainly the weak -- fetuses (thru miscarriages), children, the elderly. "Thou shalt not kill" is also our command to reduce our environmental harm. Also, killing children (medical abortion) in order to save children (by reducing environmental harms) is illogical and evil. It's a shame we Catholics don't listen much to his environmental messages, but I hope the Buddhists will.
