Oldal 38 [38]
1. INTRODUCTION
of flora and fauna, and any action capable of producing an ecological disaster
or destroying an ecosystem. We must introduce — we are thinking about
it — in the Catechism of the Catholic Church the sin against ecology, the
ecological sin against the common home, because it is a duty.
In this sense, recently, the Synod Fathers for the Pan-Amazon Region
proposed to define ecological sin as action or omission against God, against
one’s neighbour, the community and the environment. It is a sin against
future generations and is manifested in acts and habits of pollution and
destruction of the harmony of the environment, in transgressions against
the principles of interdependence and in the breaking of networks of
solidarity between creatures (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 340¬
344)[2].
(...) ‘ecocide’ is to be understood as the loss, damage or destruction of
the ecosystems of a given territory, so that its utilization by inhabitants has
been or can be seen as severely compromised. This is a fifth category of
crimes against peace, which should be recognised as such by the international
community.”
Pope Francis’s apostolic exhortation Laudate Deum,” a follow-up to his
encyclical Laudato Si(2015), was published on October 4, 2023, the Feast of
St. Francis of Assisi, symbolically timed before the UN COP28 climate
conference in Dubai (November 30-December 12, 2023). In this document,
Pope Francis urgently called on global leaders to address the climate crisis
with unwavering honesty and decisive action to protect the environment. He
emphasized, “It is no longer possible to doubt the human — ‘anthropogenic’
— origin of climate change” (Laudate Deum, para. 11), urging a renewed
commitment to live in harmony with creation.
He highlighted the moral imperative for humanity in the third millennium
to recognize the obligations that earlier societies upheld: to live in balance
with the Earth, our common home. Pope Francis noted that a growing number
of individuals and organizations worldwide are dedicated to protecting and
preserving God’s creation. While numerous ecclesiastical documents, such
as Laudato Si (2015) and the Final Document of the Synod on the Pan-Amazon
Region (2019), address environmental stewardship from various perspectives,
Laudate Deum does not aim to reiterate these comprehensively. Instead, it
underscores the gravity of ecological harm.
In the apostolic exhortation Laudate Deum,* Pope Francis calls for a journey
of ecological conversion, urging each person to take responsibility for their
actions and their impact on the environment.
78 Ibid.
7 Francis, Laudate Deum.
8 Thid.
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