How the Pope used the environment to preach to the UN

Pope Francis’ appeal to the United Nations General Assembly to care for both the environment and the human person was actually a deft move to introduce more Church teaching to the body, a U.N. expert explained.

Sep 26, 2015

WASHINGTON D.C: Pope Francis’ appeal to the United Nations General Assembly to care for both the environment and the human person was actually a deft move to introduce more Church teaching to the body, a U.N. expert explained.

“In an interesting fashion throughout this whole visit, so far [Pope Francis] hasn’t taken that tone of correcting people or criticizing people. His tone has been using what they already find familiar and agreeable, and trying to take them a few steps closer to the Christian faith,” said Fr. Chris Pollard, an attaché at the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations from 2009 until 2012, in an interview with CNA.

In talking about care for the environment, Pope Francis “knows that the U.N. is very concerned about the environment. That’s why he’s using this theme, to get in the points,” he said.

Some of these other “points” include care for the unborn and respect for the cultures of developing countries.

The Pope’s address to the United Nations General Assembly came at the beginning of their 70th anniversary term, just before the assembly’s special summit this weekend to adopt the finalized draft of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. The goals set in place a massive development agenda for the next 15 years.

Since he is the first Roman Pontiff to address the body at the beginning of its term, when all the heads of state were present, it was possibly “the largest gathering of heads of state to hear a Pope ever in human history,” Fr. Pollard noted.

Previous Popes have addressed the general assembly: Blessed Paul VI did so in 1965, St. John Paul II in 1979 and 1995, and  Benedict XVI in 2008.

In his lengthy address, Pope Francis urged the assembly to adopt concrete solutions to address the problems of the day with climate change and pollution as well as human problems like poverty, religious persecution, and “economic and social exclusion.”

He warned them to avoid an “ideological colonization” of the third world that seeks development solutions which are really an unjust imposition of an “alien” culture on others.

“That is a reference to Christians and other religious minorities suffering not just violent persecution but suffering at the hands of aid organizations that want to impose same-sex marriage or contraception or abortion,” Fr. Pollard explained.

In a phrase sure to turn heads, Pope Francis recognized the “right of the environment” – which sounds like he’s attributing a sort of “disembodied right” to the natural world as its own “entity,” Fr. Pollard noted.

In reality, however, Francis is rooting environmental stewardship in human dignity and orienting it toward God, the Creator, as he did in his ecology encyclical Laudato Si’.

“He makes very clear he’s using that phrase to ground the environment in, principally, the rights of human beings. The dignity of human beings,” Fr. Pollard said. “And the fact that creation was created by a Creator.”

The Pope emphasized this by using a capital “C” to refer to God as Creator in the draft of his address, he noted.

While caring for the environment, Francis ultimately cares about human action and what humans do to be stewards of God’s creation, Fr. Pollard explained..

“Obviously he does care about the environment and he cares about the world, but what he cares about primarily is human beings and how they live, and how they treat each other,” Fr. Pollard said.

“Do they live responsibly? Do they live with charity? Do they live with temperance? Do they live with justice? Do they live with virtue?”

“That’s really what it’s about, but he’s using the environment as a vehicle to get the attention of people who already care about it. And then he’s leading them closer.”

And naturally, other matters like care for the unborn and the poor flow from this care for the environment, and Pope Francis has already made this connection on his U.S. trip.

“To the joint session of Congress, [Pope Francis] made a reference to life needing to be protected at all stages, and at the end of that speech he talked about a culture where we discouraged people from having children – so he’s getting at contraception, and a false preoccupation with population,” Fr. Pollard pointed out.

The Holy Father also emphasized the importance of religious liberty as a necessary foundation for human flourishing, and appealed for the protection of religious minorities in the Middle East and North Africa:

“I must renew my repeated appeals regarding to the painful situation of the entire Middle East, North Africa and other African countries, where Christians, together with other cultural or ethnic groups, and even members of the majority religion who have no desire to be caught up in hatred and folly, have been forced to witness the destruction of their places of worship, their cultural and religious heritage, their houses and property, and have faced the alternative either of fleeing or of paying for their adhesion to good and to peace by their own lives, or by enslavement,” he said.

“That is the legal definition of genocide,” Professor Robert Destro of the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law told CNA. Pope Francis did not use the term “genocide,” but his words made it crystal clear that is what is taking place, he explained.

The Pope’s appeal to the U.N. is so important, Destro explained, because Christians and others who are persecuted are the “canaries in the world coal mine,” and Pope Francis is warning the West that religious freedom could deteriorate there if those persecuted in Asia and Africa are not protected.

“If they’re suffering, then we’re in a really deep problem. The worse their suffering, the worse the trouble we’re in,” Destro said.

The Pope’s overall point here was that “anything that will advance the welfare of minority religious communities will by definition create more peace,” he added.

He also noted the Pope’s use of the phrase “effective distribution of power” in describing a way to “limit power” through law so that no person or group can be “absolute” and “bypass the dignity and the rights of other individuals.”

In reality, however, Francis is rooting environmental stewardship in human dignity and orienting it toward God, the Creator, as he did in his ecology encyclical Laudato Si’.

“He makes very clear he’s using that phrase to ground the environment in, principally, the rights of human beings. The dignity of human beings,” Fr. Pollard said. “And the fact that creation was created by a Creator.”

The Pope emphasized this by using a capital “C” to refer to God as Creator in the draft of his address, he noted.

While caring for the environment, Francis ultimately cares about human action and what humans do to be stewards of God’s creation, Fr. Pollard explained..

“Obviously he does care about the environment and he cares about the world, but what he cares about primarily is human beings and how they live, and how they treat each other,” Fr. Pollard said.

“Do they live responsibly? Do they live with charity? Do they live with temperance? Do they live with justice? Do they live with virtue?”

“That’s really what it’s about, but he’s using the environment as a vehicle to get the attention of people who already care about it. And then he’s leading them closer.”

And naturally, other matters like care for the unborn and the poor flow from this care for the environment, and Pope Francis has already made this connection on his U.S. trip.

“To the joint session of Congress, [Pope Francis] made a reference to life needing to be protected at all stages, and at the end of that speech he talked about a culture where we discouraged people from having children – so he’s getting at contraception, and a false preoccupation with population,” Fr. Pollard pointed out.

The Holy Father also emphasized the importance of religious liberty as a necessary foundation for human flourishing, and appealed for the protection of religious minorities in the Middle East and North Africa:

“I must renew my repeated appeals regarding to the painful situation of the entire Middle East, North Africa and other African countries, where Christians, together with other cultural or ethnic groups, and even members of the majority religion who have no desire to be caught up in hatred and folly, have been forced to witness the destruction of their places of worship, their cultural and religious heritage, their houses and property, and have faced the alternative either of fleeing or of paying for their adhesion to good and to peace by their own lives, or by enslavement,” he said.

“That is the legal definition of genocide,” Professor Robert Destro of the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law told CNA. Pope Francis did not use the term “genocide,” but his words made it crystal clear that is what is taking place, he explained.

The Pope’s appeal to the U.N. is so important, Destro explained, because Christians and others who are persecuted are the “canaries in the world coal mine,” and Pope Francis is warning the West that religious freedom could deteriorate there if those persecuted in Asia and Africa are not protected.

“If they’re suffering, then we’re in a really deep problem. The worse their suffering, the worse the trouble we’re in,” Destro said.

The Pope’s overall point here was that “anything that will advance the welfare of minority religious communities will by definition create more peace,” he added.

He also noted the Pope’s use of the phrase “effective distribution of power” in describing a way to “limit power” through law so that no person or group can be “absolute” and “bypass the dignity and the rights of other individuals.”--CNA