Page 29 - Supplemento 2-2016 (ENG)

Tackling Environmental Crime throUgh standardized Methodologies

The challenge of comprehensive ecology in the light of human dignity

H.E. Mons. Silvano Maria Tomasi
Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace

First of all, on behalf of the President of the Pontifical Counsel for Justice
and Peace Cardinal Peter Turkson, I would like to thank the organizers of this
event, also for associating the Holy See to this important occasion. In particular, I
want to thank the Commanding General of the Carabinieri Gen. Tullio Del Sette.

A year ago the Holy Father signed the encyclical letter “Laudato Si” (Praised
Be) which the Counsel for Justice and Peace works very hard to diffuse.

“Laudato Si” constitutes a new, important contribution to collective and
interdisciplinary reflections on the safeguarding and care of our common home.

It aroused considerable interest also on the occasion of the recent
“COP21” summit on climate in Paris, as well as in other events concerning the
dialogue between science and faith and between environmental and religious
associations. It also attracted the attention of experts on issues like water or waste
management, or desertification. In fact, this encyclical has had influence even
before it was published, because the two ambassadors who were preparing
“COP21” had come to speak to me last year, when I was Nuncio at the United
Nations in Geneva. They were saying to me: we are waiting for this document to
be published to finalize our positions in Paris. Several elements of the “Laudato
Si” are actually reported, commented on and examined in depth by the media.

As for me, inspired by chapter three on anthropology and four on integral
ecology, I would like to make a contribution to our reflections on humankind
and the environment, on global challenges, on safeguarding and prospects.

The Catholic Church was not born in the first place to deal with ecological
diplomatic and geopolitical issues, but the Second Vatican Council is clear: the
joys, hopes, sadness and anguish of today’s humankind, most of all of the
poor, and of everyone who is suffering, are also the joys, hopes, sadness and
anguish of the disciples of Christ. Nothing that is genuinely human does not
have an echo in their hearts. Any form of indifference and apathy is rejected by
the Christians. Everything that concerns humanity resonates in their hearts, in

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