The Top Environment Quotes from the Church

by CAPP-USA

Environment quotes from the Church emphasize not only nature but the human environment.

Our favorite human environment quotes from the Catholic Church.

Our Favorite Human Environment Quotes

The Holy Fathers have consistently insisted that if we do not respect our human environment we will not respect the natural environment.

The Human Environment

“Creation is made to connect us with God and to each other; it is God’s social network.” (Pope Francis)
“Man is suddenly becoming aware that by an ill-considered exploitation of nature he risks destroying it and becoming in his turn the victim of this degradation.” (Pope St. Paul VI, 21)
“An integral ecology is inseparable from the notion of the common good, a central and unifying principle of social ethics.” (Pope Francis, 156)
“The deterioration of nature is in fact closely connected to the culture.” (Pope Benedict XVI, 51)
“Our duties towards the environment are linked to our duties towards the human person.” (Synod of Bishops, XIII Ordinary General Assembly, 21)
“[N]o peaceful society can afford to neglect either respect for life or the fact that there is an integrity to creation“. (Pope St. John Paul II, 1)
“A greater sense of intergenerational solidarity is urgently needed. Future generations cannot be saddled with the cost of our use of common environmental resources.” (Pope Benedict XVI, 8)
“Not only is the material environment becoming a permanent menace – pollution and refuse, new illness and absolute destructive capacity – but the human framework is no longer under man’s control, thus creating an environment for tomorrow which may well be intolerable. This is a wide-ranging social problem which concerns the entire human family.” (Pope St. Paul VI, 21)

“[N]o peaceful society can afford to neglect either respect for life or the fact that there is an integrity to creation”. (Pope St. John Paul II, 1)

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Three circles containing symbols of the three principles of catholic social teaching: human dignity, subsidiarity, and solidarity.

Three Key Principles

Catholic social teaching is built on three foundational principles - Human Dignity, Solidarity and Subsidiarity. Human Dignity, embodied in a correct understanding of the human person, is the greatest. The others flow from it. Good governments and good economic systems find ways of fostering the three principles.

Human Dignity

This means a correct understanding of the human person and of each person’s unique value. All Catholic social teaching flows from this: the inherent dignity of every person that comes from being made in God’s image.

Solidarity

Solidarity is not “a feeling of vague compassion or shallow distress at the misfortunes of others. It is a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good”. (Pope St. John Paul II, 38) Love of God and love of neighbor are, in fact, linked and form one, single commandment.

Subsidiarity

Subsidiarity “is a fundamental principle of social philosophy, fixed and unchangeable, that one should not withdraw from individuals and commit to the community what they can accomplish by their own enterprise and industry. So, too, it is an injustice and at the same time a grave evil and a disturbance of right order to transfer to the larger and higher collectivity functions which can be performed and provided for by the lesser and subordinate bodies”. (Pope Pius XI)

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