Ending Our Senseless War on Creation
Submitted by Marguerite Thompson
This is a quote from an article in the Catholic Climate Covenant’s October newsletter. With recent news of war, it shares an apt image of the effect of war:
War is a terrible thing. It creates so many victims. Soldiers and civilians, to be sure, but also local ecosystems. Death and destruction. Crumbled buildings and compromised infrastructure. Physical and emotional trauma.
It is striking then that Pope Francis is using the phrase, “a senseless war of creation” around the release of his new Apostolic Exhortation, Laudate Deum. I can’t help but focus on the word “senseless.” It reminds me of my younger years when my still-developing prefrontal cortex prevented me from doing things that put myself and others in danger. I had no sense.
We have full knowledge that the continued burning of fossil fuels is putting life, all life–plants, animals, and humans–at risk of death and destruction, physical and emotional trauma. Recalling recent months of unrelenting heat, choking smoke, flash floods, and devastating droughts at home and abroad, we can see the results of our unrelenting war on creation…
– Dan Misleh, founder of Catholic Climate Covenant
See more at: www.catholicclimatecovenant.org