Pope calls on religions to defend environment, human life [John Allen]

[Catholic_Press]

Article Details LONDON – A great irony of Pope Benedict XVI’s approach to relations with other religions is that this theologian-pope has to some extent dethroned theology, in favor of what he calls “inter-cultural” dialogue. By that, he means focusing on social, cultural and political concerns where the religions agree, rather than on matters of doctrine where they don’t. That theme surfaced again this morning, as Benedict XVI met a delegation of leaders of other religions

                                By John L. Allen Jr.        
    

                                http://ncronline.org/files/Popekids.jpg?1284735496        
    

                                Pope Benedict XVI sits next to schoolchildren at St. Mary's University College in Twickenham, a London suburb, Sept. 17. (CNS photo/Max Rossi, Reuters)

LONDON – A great irony of Pope Benedict XVI’s approach to relations with other religions is that this theologian-pope has to some extent dethroned theology, in favor of what he calls “inter-cultural” dialogue. By that, he means focusing on social, cultural and political concerns where the religions agree, rather than on matters of doctrine where they don’t.

That theme surfaced again this morning, as Benedict XVI met a delegation of leaders of other religions gathered at St. Mary’s University in the Twickenham neighborhood of London, where the pope had earlier participated in an assembly of Catholic educators and schoolchildren.

Read the full report here: [ Pope calls on religions to defend environment, human life (Pope calls on religions to defend environment, human life | National Catholic Reporter)

John Allen will be filing reports throughout the Papal visit to the U.K. Sept. 16-19. Stay tuned to NCR Today for updates.

**Stories in this series on the papal visit to Scotland and England: **

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[Sailor_Kenshin]

We can defend one or the other, not ‘both.’

Environmentalism always comes hand-in-hand with eugenics.

I wonder what he REALLY said.

 

[manygift1spirit]

We can defend one or the other, not ‘both.’

Environmentalism always comes hand-in-hand with eugenics.

I wonder what he REALLY said.

I’ll be reading my RSS feeds tonight, but in the meantime I should advise that this is an oversimplification. Proper stewardship of all of creation and affirmation of the full dignity of the human person are not contradictory, and in fact are both proper.

Perhaps what you left unsaid is that “Proper stewardship of the created world” is only a small subset of what passes for “environmentalism” nowadays, if it is part of it at all. That is a fair point to put forward, but it risks being a distraction or even a straw man when seen in the light of Benedict’s full body of work, e.g., Caritas in Veritate. All of creation is valuable, and to set one against the other is a false dichotomy. (I suspect that is the pontiff’s point)