The Church has a responsibility towards creation and she must assert this responsibility in the public sphere. In so doing she must defend not only earth water and air as gifts of creation that belong to everyone. She must above all protect mankind from self-destruction. There is need for what might be called a human ecology correctly understood. The deterioration of nature is in fact closely connected to the culture that shapes human coexistence: when “human ecology” is respected within society environmental ecology also benefits. Just as human virtues are interrelated such that the weakening of one places others at risk so the ecological system is based on respect for a plan that affects both the health of society and its good relationship with nature.
In order to protect nature it is not enough to intervene with economic incentives or deterrents; not even an apposite education is sufficient. These are important steps but the decisive issue is the overall moral tenor of society. If there is a lack of respect for the right to life and to a natural death if human conception gestation and birth are made artificial if human embryos are sacrificed to research the conscience of society ends up losing the concept of human ecology and along with it that of environmental ecology. It is contradictory to insist that future generations respect the natural environment when our educational systems and laws do not help them to respect themselves. The book of nature is one and indivisible: it takes in not only the environment but also life sexuality marriage the family social relations: in a word integral human development. Our duties towards the environment are linked to our duties towards the human person considered in himself and in relation to others. It would be wrong to uphold one set of duties while trampling on the other. Herein lays a grave contradiction in our mentality and practice today: one which demeans the person disrupts the environment and damages society.
Pope Benedict XVI Caritas in Veritate No. 51.