People must change their relationship with nature and view it not as an “object for unscrupulous use and abuse” but as a gift they are charged by God to care for and protect, Pope Francis said yesterday. Source: CNS.
People are called to contemplate creation as a reflection of “God’s infinite wisdom and goodness” and not act as if people are the “centre of everything” and the “absolute rulers of all other creatures,” the Pope said during his weekly general audience.
“Exploiting creation – this is sin,” he said. “We believe that we are at the centre, claiming to occupy God’s place and thus we ruin the harmony of creation, the harmony of God’s design. We become predators, forgetting our vocation as guardians of life.”
The audience was held in the San Damaso courtyard of the Apostolic Palace. While the Pope maintained his distance when greeting most of the faithful, he approached several pilgrims to sign autographs, speak directly to them or briefly swap his signature zucchetto for one brought as a gift.
Continuing his series of talks on “healing the world,” the Pope reflected on the theme of “caring for the common home and contemplative attitude”.
Contemplation, he said, is the best “antidote against the disease of not taking care of the common home” and falling “into an unbalanced and arrogant anthropocentrism,” in which humans place themselves and their needs “at the centre of everything.”
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Creation must be protected, not exploited, Pope says at audience (By Junno Arocho Esteves, CNS)
