Msgr. Paul McPartlan, Carl J. Peter Professor of Systematic Theology and Ecumenism, published an article in Our Sunday Visitor’s The Catholic Answer on the ecological crisis as a spiritual crisis.
Everything is connected,” Pope Francis tells us in his 2015 encyclical letter on ecology, Laudato Si’ (see No. 91).
In particular, as Pope Benedict XVI had said in 2007, caring for the earth and caring for one another go together. He called them the “ecology of nature” and “human ecology,” and made a further connection, too: “There is an inseparable link between peace with creation and peace among men. Both of these presuppose peace with God” (Message for the World Day of Peace 2007, No. 8).
We’re becoming more and more aware that something has gone wrong in our relationship with creation — that is what we mean when we talk of an ecological or environmental crisis. And we’ve known for a long time that something has gone wrong in our human relations with one another — that is why there are so many conflicts in society and in the world at large. As Christians, we believe that something went wrong in humanity’s relationship with God at a very early stage — that’s what we call original sin. All of those problems are connected. ...
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