Courtesy of Rita Salerno

 

The attention towards the issues on the respect and protection of creation has always been in the heart of the Church. Today, more than ever, this topic is, by right, among the priorities of Benedict XVI’s pontificate and, even before that, of John Paul II. They are not only words, but also facts, as it is proved by the seventh forum promoted in Pistoia by the Greenaccord Association on the theme,” Humanity on a journey in creation”, in the month of June.     

We have addressed some questions on this argument, of pressing actuality, to Gianpaolo Marchetti.  Since 1974, He is a member of the movement of the Cursillos de Cristianidad, in whose area he holds the component position of the executive in the world organism, as well as president of the Greenaccord Cultural Association, whose finality is to sensitise persons of good-will on the theme of safeguarding the environment, independently from the religious creed.   

What does this seventh forum of Catholic information propose on the safeguard of creation?

“The seventh forum continued the reflection that started last year and that develops in three years on the theme of the time, of the journey and space. In 2010, due to the coincidence of the compostelan year, the chosen theme is that of the journey, because it is just the condition of every “wayfarer”, who in his life “crosses” the creation sharing its fate that takes us to re-discover the value of an immersed journey and in syntony with nature. It is a nature that offers itself as desert to the end of re-discovering God, as a mount for the encounter, as a welcoming street, company of journey. During the Forum, the reflection highlighted some old “journeys” of spirituality, one of which (the Francigena) crosses the entire Tuscany, while another (the Compostelana) finds just in Pistoia a singular coupling made up of faith and civilisation, of history and future”.

Drawing the cue from the theme of the recent General Assembly of USMI, “Entrusted to a promise: to humanise our life in Christ”,  s it possible to state that the journey of religious life assumes a major awareness also in the light of a greater sensitivity towards creation?

“I believe that in the tradition of the greatest religious orders –both feminine and masculine-, there is a constant research of God also through the direct contact with nature. I think of the attitude of the religious in choosing sites in which to build up the religious houses; I think of the search for solitude to immerge oneself exclusively into an appropriate natural environment (mountain, desert, etc.), as well as of the awareness to perceive the divine presence in sounds, colours, lights of creation. I would dare say that without the perception of God’s presence in creation, the religious life would be deprived of a fundamental experience: creation renders the solitude of religious life communicative and participative, and the religious life avails itself of creation to read in it the image and the imprints of the Creator. In this sense, the experience of Camaldoli is meaningful: they gave the name of a tree to each new member. Moreover, Charles de Foucauld, in narrating his experience of the desert, made up of countless tiny grains of sand, described  the “nothingness” of the desert as a way to the ‘All’ “.

To you, is it possible to educate persons to life and to faith by taking a cue from the surrounding nature? How could we do it?

“Unlike the past generations, when the rural civilisation was considered as a precious reality, today’s man perceives the other forms of life as “things” that can be utilised at will, or created for utilitarian purposes of man. Man has forgotten that creation is the work in which and for which God is pleased and that his main function is to praise the Creator. It is possible, starting from this awareness, to build up a formation itinerary that may educate every person to feel as “priest” of creation and a continuer of God’s creative work. In this sense, we would need to revise also the catechetical proposals of youth formation; I think of the possibilities we may find within the summer camps for the youths and the recovery of bygone pilgrimages on foot.

What role should the attention to creation have in the religious formation?

“What we have said in a general sense is valid also for the religious life. I would add also that a style of sobriety, connatural to the vow of poverty, would have an added further value, holding it as a contribution to safeguard creation. A further stimulus could derive from education to prayer through the signs of creation (water, flowers, stars, etc.); we must remember that in the “creed”, soon after praising God as almighty Father, we recognise Him as Creator of heaven and earth. The contemplative orders themselves, who in their prayer contemplate the work of God’s hands, could address their prayer also to the end of a major attention on behalf of the Christians towards creation”.   

Is the community of believers attentive towards the safeguard of creation, or is the way still too long in this sense?   

“The Christian community is particularly sensitive towards the environmental themes, but often this sensitivity remains epidermal, it is not translated into any concrete action. No Christian, in reading the canticle of creatures by St. Francis of Assisi, remains indifferent and does not experience a sense of participation and commotion. However, it is hard to make the differentiated collection; when they go shopping, they pay no attention to the products  that they buy; a lot is wasted in food, water and energy, just to give some examples. Often the Christians think that there is no need for worry because the Lord, in his infinite goodness, provides anyhow the needs of man, thus undervaluing the contribution that we singularly are called to give, above all in order to the finiteness of the natural resources, which cannot be regenerated because of an intensive and intemperate exploitation. Of course, we have still a lot to do but, as John Paul II reminded us in no. 51 of Novo millennio ineunte, “the Christians cannot remain aloof before the looming of an ecological instability”. To suggest some virtuous practice, Greenaccord has published with the Ancora publisher a booklet entitled: La terra è casa tua. Consigli pratici per un vivere sostenibile proprio destinato alle famiglie” (the earth is your house. Practical advices for one’s own sustainable living intended for families).

The world ecosystem is at risk, according to the chronicles of these days, which make us to know the environmental disaster caused by the oil spill near the gulf of Mexico; which contribute could the community of believers, and of the women religious in particular, offer?    

“The environmental disaster of the gulf of Mexico proposes again to the world scene the urgency of providing an environmental security that should be nullifying if compared to every project of development. Unluckily, as the economist Stefano Zamagni claims, the political power does not succeed in giving adequate answers to the environmental problem, because it does not go beyond the time between an election and the other. The civil society should compel the politicians to invert the route and to re-think the present way of development, because interest and profit are often the real cause of various disasters, which frequently happen, but which soon pass into forgetfulness, as soon as the emergency is over.

The earth consumes two and half times the possibility of the entire ecosystem. In other words, it is the same as if we withdrew from our bank current account more than our monthly deposit: when we deplete the deposit, the redde rationem follows and the director of the Bank will call us to settle the accounts! The creation also will call us to our accountability for the pauperisation of its resources and will compel us to a brusque change of life-style.  In his message on peace this year, Benedict XVI has reminded us that the protection of creation is “a very serious duty” of every believer: it is a very serious duty for the laypersons as well as for those who have chosen the religious life and have the responsibility as educator and formator. We need to keep well in mind that, after the Eucharist and the communion of believers, creation remains the visible image of the Creator and the best way to know, to praise and to thank him”.

How to help today’s man to become aware of his condition as homo viator, as a pilgrim along the streets of the world on a journey with creation?  

“In the romance Il quinto evangelio (The fifth gospel) by Pomilio, the author puts on the lips of Jesus a sentence that should be carved in the heart of everyone, “be wayfarers and not sedentary persons”. Christian is he who lives and feels to be on a journey, he who is never fully satisfied, who does not sit down, waiting for life to run before him; the Christian is a man who searches. In walking, men receive as companions of journey all forms of the existing life, together with  the call to walk with them along the streets of the world and to praise the Creator. To be part of this great immensity  makes us to feel little and inadequate, but also recipients of a great gift, which we do not receive as a heritage of the past, but rather as a loan by the future generations. The sense of our “fast” passage on earth must make us to be attentive and to leave our positive imprint in creation, in order to pass it on improved to the humanity of tomorrow.