Faith in God must lead to respect for creation, patriarch says

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Respecting the God-given dignity of the human person and the integrity of God's creation "are inseparable," said Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople.

In his message for the Sept. 1 World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, the patriarch echoed Pope Francis' insistence that religious groups have an important role to play in fighting climate change because true progress will require conversion.

"Genuine religious faith dissolves the arrogance and titanism of humankind" by helping people realize they are not God, the patriarch said. A person has no right to abolish "all standards, boundaries and values, while declaring himself 'the measure of all things' and instrumentalizing both his fellow human beings and nature for the satisfaction of his unquenchable needs and arbitrary pursuits."

"Respect for the sacredness of the human person and the protection of the integrity of the 'very good' creation are inseparable," the patriarch said in his message, which was posted in Greek and English Aug. 28 on the Greek Orthodox website Fos Fanariou.

The annual day of prayer was instituted by Patriarch Bartholomew's predecessor, Patriarch Demetrios, in 1989. Pope Francis, recognizing the importance of the patriarch's initiative, added the day to the Catholic Church's annual observances in 2015.

Pope Francis' message for the 2024 day of prayer, released by the Vatican in June, also spoke of the conversion necessary to leave behind "the arrogance of those who want to exercise dominion over others and nature itself, reducing the latter to an object to be manipulated," and to instead embrace "the humility of those who care for others and for all of creation."

With God as the loving Father, his Son as the "friend and redeemer of every person, and the Holy Spirit who guides our steps on the path of charity," Pope Francis wrote, "obedience to the Spirit of love radically changes the way we think: from 'predators,' we become 'tillers' of the garden."

Patriarch Bartholomew's statement, like that of Pope Francis, also emphasized the connection between care for creation and love for one another, especially the poor.

"There is a close and indissoluble bond between our care of creation and our service to the body of Christ, just as there is between the economic conditions of the poor and the ecological conditions of the planet," he said. "Scientists tell us that those most egregiously harmed by the current ecological crisis will continue to be those who have the least."