Oldal 39 [39]
1.6. Our Responsibility to Future Generations
According to the social teaching of the Church, legal regulation is necessary
"468. Responsibility for the environment should also find adeguate
expression on a juridical level. It is important that the international
community draw up uniform rules that will allow States to exercise more
effective control over the various activities that have negative effects on
the environment and to protect ecosystems by preventing the risk of
accidents. "The State should also actively endeavour within its own territory
to prevent destruction of the atmosphere and biosphere, by carefully
monitoring, among other things, the impact of new technological or
scientific advances ... [and] ensuring that its citizens are not exposed to
dangerous pollutants or toxic wastes’*’.”
The juridical content of ‘the right to a safe and healthy natural
environment" is gradually taking form, stimulated by the concern shown
by public opinion to disciplining the use of created goods according to the
demands of the common good and a common desire to punish those who
pollute. But juridical measures by themselves are not sufficient.** They
must be accompanied by a growing sense of responsibility as well as an
effective change of mentality and lifestyle.”
1.6. Our Responsibility to Future Generations
“Responsibility for the environment, the common heritage of mankind,
extends not only to present needs but also to those of the future. “We have
inherited from past generations, and we have benefited from the work of
our contemporaries: for this reason we have obligations towards all, and
Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church
(Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2004), para. 468, https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/
pontifical_councils/justpeace/documents/rc_pc_justpeace_doc_20060526_compendio-dott¬
soc_en.html.
Pope John Paul II, Message for the 1990 World Day of Peace (1 January 1990), Acta Apostolicae
Sedis 82 (1990): 152.
Pope John Paul II, Address to the European Commission and Court of Human Rights (Strasbourg,
8 October 1988), 5, Acta Apostolicae Sedis 81 (1989): 685; cf. Pope John Paul II, Message for
the 1999 World Day of Peace, 10, Acta Apostolicae Sedis 91 (1999): 384-85.
C£ John Paul II: Message for the 1999 World Day of Peace, 10: Acta Apostolicae Sedis 91
(1999), 384-385.
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