1. Catholic Reflections on World Environment Day 2011 Justice and Peace Commission, Diocese of Auckland

2. God said, ‘Let the waters under heaven come together into a single mass, and let dry land appear. And so it was. God called the dry land ‘earth’ and the mass of waters ‘seas’, and God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:9-10

3. From the beginning of our Scriptures, humanity has recognised that God created the Earth as good – a treasure to respect and to care for. Our Bishops speak about Earth in the context of a consistent ethic for all life which, they say, “places the sacredness of creation and the need to protect and enhance all human life, and the life of our planet on which we depend, as a basic and central moral point of reference.’ NZ Catholic Bishops Conference, A Consistent Ethic of Life, 1997

4. From use of Earth’s resources to provide for our needs, somewhere we have slipped over a line to abuse of Earth to provide excessively for our wants.

5. Humanity has unhesitatingly devastated wooded plains and valleys, polluted the waters, deformed the earth’s habitat, made the air unbreathable, … blighted green spaces, implemented uncontrolled forms of industrialisation, humiliating the earth. John Paul II General Audience Address, 2001

6. Can we remain indifferent before the problems associated with such realities as climate change, desertification, the deterioration and loss of productivity in vast agricultural areas, the pollution of rivers and aquifers, the loss of biodiversity, the increase of natural catastrophes and the deforestation of equatorial and tropical regions? Benedict XVI, World Day of Peace Message, 2010

7. …The natural environment is more than raw material to be manipulated at our pleasure; it is a wondrous work of the Creator containing a “grammar” which sets forth ends and criteria for its wise use, not its reckless exploitation. Pope Benedict XIV, Caritas in Veritate, 2009

8. We are called to kaitiakitanga, ‘in keeping with the traditions of the Maori of Aotearoa … to respect the sacredness of creation, as partners in life with the earth’ NZ Catholic Bishops’ Conference, A Consistent Ethic of Life, 1997

9. At the personal level, the suffering of others and the damage to our planet demand that we look closely at our own lifestyles … Both individual and collective acts of selflessness are needed – of self sacrifice for the greater good, of self denial in the midst of convenient choices, of choosing simpler lifestyles in the midst of a consumer society. New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference, Environmental Justice, 2006

10. How will we live with an ethic of care for Earth, so that it can continue to support our children? What path will we follow – as individuals, as communities, as Church? Justice and Peace Commission, Diocese of Auckland, 2011