On 17 December 2009, L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, carried a very critical front-page article concerning the recent Environmental Summit in Copenhagen. The writer says that: ‘Nihilistic thought, with its rejection of any objective truth and values causes serious damage when applied to economics.’ In a reference to the ‘disastrous consequences’ of the argument of Malthus that population growth causes poverty, and the theory that the economy is morally autonomous, he says that such ideas have led to an ‘overly consumerist and materialistic’ mentality –
‘Il pensiero nichilista, con il suo rifiuto di ogni valore e verita oggettivi causa gravissimi danni se applicato in economia. Si pensi alle disastrose conseguenze del pregiudizio malthusiano, secondo il quale la crescita della popolazione provoca poverta.’
The writer goes on to say that when applied to environmental issues nihilism causes even more serious damage, which is leading to the attempt to solve problems relating to climate change, etc., through lowering the birth rate, and de-industrialisation, rather than through the promotion of values that lead the individual to his original dignity –
‘Ora pretende di risolvere i problemi climatici – dove regna molta confusione – attraverso la denatalita e la deinustrializzazzione, anziche attraverso la promozione de valori che riportino l’individuo alla sua dignita originaria.’– ‘The environmentalists do well to urge greater attention to nature. But they would do better to read also Caritas in veritate. They might understand why – but above all for whom – the environment must be respected.’
‘Fanno quindi bene gli ambientalisti a sollecitare maggiore attenzione per la natura. Ma farebbero meglio a leggere anche la Caritas in veritate. Capirebbero perche – ma soprattutto per chi – l’ambiente si deve rispettare’
[Caritas in Veritate is, of course, the encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI]
[Source: L’Osservatore Romano, and LifeSiteNews for 19 December 2009]
