ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Thursday, Jul. 24 2008

A closer look at the pope's environmental message
By Colleen Carroll Campbell

After months of focusing on the potential cost overruns and possible crowd
shortfalls of World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia, journalists covering the
event last week suddenly started praising Pope Benedict XVI's charms and
rapport with the young.

The change in attitude stemmed partly from Benedict's undeniable popularity:
His closing Mass on Sunday attracted 400,000 people, the largest crowd ever
assembled in Australia. Perhaps more importantly, the shift followed Benedict's
repeated mentions last week of environmental awareness, a cause close to the
hearts of Western media elites.

Given that no lobby is more fashionable or feted today than the environmental
movement, it's unsurprising that so many pundits consider Benedict's
eco-consciousness his best quality. Many of the same critics who once panned
him as the "Panzer Cardinal" for his theological orthodoxy now hail Benedict as
"the green pope."

They applaud his decision to install solar panels in Vatican buildings and
plant trees in a Hungarian national park to offset the Vatican's carbon
emissions. They note with approval that Vatican City is the world's first
"carbon-neutral" state. And they report with breathless enthusiasm whenever
Benedict or one of his deputies affirms the environmental cause, as Bishop
Gianfranco Girotti appeared to do in March when he included environmental
pollution among new forms of social sin.

Of course, the other social sins Girotti highlighted — among them, genetic
manipulation of human embryos and recreational drug use — received much less
media attention. Not surprisingly, Benedict's environmental pronouncements in
Australia have fallen prey to similarly selective reporting.

Most news accounts said that Benedict made environmental protection a key theme
of his World Youth Day remarks. But anyone who read Benedict's address knew
that his environmental references came in the context of criticism of societies
where protecting children from pornography or defending the sanctity of human
life takes a back seat to hugging trees and saving spotted owls.

In speaking to the young, Benedict acknowledged their concerns about the
degradation of the natural environment but reminded them that "the social
environment — the habitat we fashion for ourselves" also has scars. Among them
are "the exaltation of violence and sexual degradation" in media and
entertainment and the materialistic mentality that tempts us to spend our lives
acquiring things rather than virtues.

Benedict especially lamented the failure to "recognize that the innate dignity
of every individual rests on his or her deepest identity — as image of the
Creator — and therefore that human rights are universal, based on the natural
law."

Just as you work to protect the natural world from exploitation, Benedict told
the young, you also must defend the dignity of the unborn, elderly and poor
from those who fail to recognize the human person as the pinnacle of the
created world.

The pope urged his listeners to apply the same discipline and sacrificial
spirit that drives them to recycle cans and conserve fuel to their spending
practices, sexual choices and prayer habits. They should worry not only about
disappearing rainforests but also about the spread of "a spiritual desert" of
"interior emptiness" and "despair" in wealthy nations. And they should follow
their respect for the limits of nature to its logical conclusion by recognizing
objective moral limits on their own behavior as well.

Far from parroting predictable environmentalist mantras, Benedict's remarks
pointed his listeners to a more satisfying, person-centered model of
environmental stewardship. That model emphasizes precisely the unique human
capacity for moral reflection and openness to the transcendent that many
eco-warriors dismiss in their eagerness to prove that plants and animals matter
as much as we do. Although reporters covering World Youth Day may have missed
the profundity of Benedict's point, the enthusiastic response of his audiences
suggests that the young heard him loud and clear.

Colleen Carroll Campbell is an author, television and radio host and St.
Louis-based fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Her website is
www.colleen-campbell.com.