Safeguarding Creation

The Church's social doctrine is organized around a few permanent principles: the dignity of the human person, the common good, the universal destination of goods, subsidiarity and solidarity^[1]. Safeguarding creation is not a principle tacked onto this list out of opportunism: it is a direct consequence of it. If the goods of the earth are destined for all men — including those not yet born — then squandering or destroying them is an injustice, not merely imprudence.

The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (2004) devotes a whole chapter to it, the tenth chapter, entitled "Safeguarding the Environment"^[2]. Care for creation is presented there as a common responsibility of humanity, linked to the seventh commandment and to justice toward future generations. The Catechism had already made it an explicit moral requirement in 1992:

"The seventh commandment enjoins respect for the integrity of creation. Animals, like plants and inanimate beings, are by nature destined for the common good of past, present, and future humanity." — Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2415^[3]

The connection with the seventh commandment — "You shall not steal" — is decisive. To destroy creation wantonly, or to seize it as prey, is in a sense to steal from others and from future generations a good destined for them. In Catholic thought, then, safeguarding creation is a question of justice, not primarily of sensibility.

A principle distinct from environmentalism

The principle of safeguarding creation must be distinguished from contemporary environmentalisms. The Church does not propose a partisan programme or an ideology: it states a moral truth about man's relationship with the world. That truth can shed light on public debates, but it cannot be reduced to them. That is why the Magisterium rejects both the productivism that treats nature as a mere stock of resources and the ecocentrism that dissolves the human person into the biosphere^[4]. The Catholic principle holds both ends together: nature has a real value received from God, and man keeps a unique place within it.

The whole principle rests on a biblical intuition: the world is not ours; it has been given to us. Creation is neither chance, nor property, nor a god: it is a gift entrusted by the Creator. Laudato si' sums it up in one sentence: "We are not God. The earth was here before us and it has been given to us."^[5]

To till and to keep: the two verbs of Genesis

The key verse is Genesis 2:15. God places man in the garden with a mission expressed by two verbs:

"The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it." — Genesis 2:15^[6]

The first Hebrew verb, 'abad (to till, to work, to serve), speaks of work: creation is entrusted to human activity; it must be developed. The second, shamar (to keep), speaks of protection: to keep is to watch over, to preserve, not to squander. Laudato si' comments on exactly this pairing: "tilling" means "cultivating, ploughing or working", while "keeping" means "caring, protecting, overseeing and preserving", which "implies a relationship of mutual responsibility between human beings and nature"^[7]. Man does not stand before a garden to plunder, but before a garden to serve and to hand on.

"Subdue the earth": a misunderstood mandate

The classic objection — popularized by the historian Lynn White in 1967 — accuses Genesis of having legitimized the ruthless exploitation of nature through the verse "fill the earth and subdue it" (Gen 1:28)^[8]. That reading is truncated. Pope Francis answers it directly:

"It has been said that, beginning with the account of Genesis which invites us to 'dominate' the earth (cf. Gen 1:28), the wild exploitation of nature has been favoured... This is not a correct interpretation of the Bible as understood by the Church." — Pope Francis, Laudato si', no. 67^[9]

The word translated as "dominion" (Hebrew radah) denotes the responsibility of a shepherd-king, not of a tyrant: in the Bible, the good king is the one who protects his people, not the one who crushes them. Read together with Genesis 2:15, the mandate of Genesis 1:28 is therefore a form of stewardship, never a licence to destroy. The narrative itself insists: after each day of creation, "God saw that it was good" (Gen 1); the world has a goodness of its own, prior to any use man makes of it^[10].

The sabbath and the jubilee: the land's right to rest

The Law of Israel turns this respect into concrete institutions. Every seven years, the land itself must observe a sabbath: it is not cultivated; it is left to rest (Lev 25:1-7). Every fifty years, the jubilee remits debts, frees slaves and restores lands (Lev 25:8-55)^[11]. These laws make a powerful point: creation is not a machine for endless production at the service of human greed; it has a rhythm willed by God, and man must fit into it rather than exhaust it. The land's rest is the sign that man is not its absolute master.

The whole creation groans in expectation

The New Testament broadens the horizon. Creation is not a mere backdrop: it shares in man's destiny and awaits redemption too.

"We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now... creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God." — Romans 8:22, 21^[12]

Saint Paul also recalls that all things were created through Christ and for him (Col 1:16-17)^[13]: creation is not neutral; it bears a Christic meaning. To mistreat creation is therefore, in a sense, to offend the plan of God inscribed in it.

The heart of the principle is man's rightful position between two symmetrical excesses. The Magisterium names them and rejects them both.

Against tyrannical domination and exploitation

The first excess is misguided anthropocentrism: man takes himself for the absolute owner, treats nature as a mere stock of resources, and exploits it without measure. John Paul II already denounced this attitude in Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (1987) and then in Centesimus Annus (1991), where he describes man who "instead of carrying out his role as a co-operator with God in the work of creation, sets himself up in place of God and thus ends up provoking a rebellion on the part of nature"^[14]. Creation does not belong to man: he will answer for it.

Against the divinization of nature

The second, opposite excess is biocentrism or ecocentrism: nature is absolutized and sacralized until it is placed above the human person. The Magisterium rejects this just as firmly. Benedict XVI warned against a vision that would make nature "something more important than the human person" and lead to "attitudes of neo-paganism or a new pantheism"^[15]. Creation is good, but it remains a creature: God alone is God. Reducing man to a mere element of the biosphere, or using the defence of nature as a pretext for despising human life, betrays the faith.

The middle way: responsible stewardship

Between these two excesses, social doctrine holds a balanced position: stewardship. Man is a manager, a responsible administrator — neither slave nor absolute master of creation.

"Not only has God given the earth to man, who must use it with respect for the original good purpose for which it was given to him, but man too is God's gift to man, and he must therefore respect the natural and moral structure with which he has been endowed." — Saint John Paul II, Centesimus Annus, no. 38^[16]

This sentence contains the principle's keyword: there is a human ecology before environmental ecology. How man treats nature, how he treats himself and how he treats others are connected, because all are God's creatures. That is why the Magisterium refuses to separate defending the environment from defending life, the family and the dignity of the person.

The principle of safeguarding creation was not invented in 2015. It developed in stages, each pope clarifying his predecessor's teaching.

From Vatican II to the Catechism

The Second Vatican Council, in Gaudium et Spes (1965), laid the foundations: earthly realities have their own consistency, and man is called to order them "in justice and holiness", remembering that the goods of the earth are destined for all^[17]. The 1992 Catechism then codified the teaching by linking respect for creation to the seventh commandment (CCC 2415-2418), and by recalling that creation reflects God's glory:

"Animals are God's creatures. He surrounds them with his providential care. By their mere existence they bless him and give him glory." — Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2416^[18]

John Paul II: the ecological crisis as a moral problem

The decisive turning point came from John Paul II. In his Message for the 1990 World Day of Peace, entitled "Peace with God the Creator, Peace with All of Creation", he stated a thesis that structures all subsequent teaching:

"The ecological crisis is a moral issue." — Saint John Paul II, Message for the World Day of Peace, 1 January 1990^[19]

In other words, damaging creation is not a merely technical or economic problem: it is a moral fault, because it wounds the justice owed to others and the respect owed to the Creator. John Paul II stresses the duty toward future generations: one cannot intervene in one area of the ecosystem "without giving due consideration... to the welfare of future generations"^[20]. A year later, Centesimus Annus introduced the notion of human ecology: damage to the human environment — the family, life — is even "more serious" than damage to the natural environment^[21].

Benedict XVI: human ecology confirmed

Benedict XVI was often called the "green pope". In Caritas in Veritate (2009), he fully integrates the environment into social doctrine:

"The natural environment has been given by God to everyone, and its use represents a responsibility towards the poor, future generations and humanity as a whole." — Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, no. 48^[22]

He stresses the inseparable link between environmental ecology and human ecology: one cannot demand respect for nature while despising nascent human life or the family. For the 2010 World Day of Peace he chose the theme: "If You Want to Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation"^[23].

Francis: Laudato si' and integral ecology

With Laudato si' (2015), Pope Francis devotes the first encyclical entirely to the safeguarding of our common home. Taking up Saint Francis of Assisi's Canticle of the Creatures, he speaks of the earth as a "sister" that is mistreated:

"This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her." — Pope Francis, Laudato si', no. 2^[24]

Francis's distinctive contribution is the notion of integral ecology: everything is connected; the environmental crisis and the social crisis are a single crisis, and the cry of the earth joins the cry of the poor^[25]. Laudate Deum (2023) extends this appeal in the face of the climate emergency. This synthesis deserves separate treatment: see Integral ecology.

Safeguarding creation is not an isolated principle: it fits together with the other principles of social doctrine, of which it is partly a consequence. The following table shows how each principle sheds light on care for creation.

The strongest link is with the universal destination of goods: if God gave the earth to all, then exhausting it for the benefit of a few or of a single generation is a fundamental injustice^[26]. The second is with solidarity: it is almost always the poorest who suffer environmental degradation first, which turns ecology into a demand of justice rather than a rich-country luxury.

The principle of safeguarding creation is not only a matter of justice: it has a profound spiritual dimension, embodied by Saint Francis of Assisi. John Paul II proclaimed him "heavenly patron of those who promote ecology" in the apostolic letter Inter Sanctos of 29 November 1979^[27].

Franciscan spirituality does not sacralize nature: it reads it as a book that sings of God. In the Canticle of the Creatures, Francis does not address nature as a goddess, but praises God through his creatures:

"Praised be You, my Lord, with all Your creatures, especially Sir Brother Sun... Praised be You, my Lord, for Sister our Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us." — Saint Francis of Assisi, Canticle of the Creatures, c. 1225^[28]

Here is the Catholic balance: creation is respected because it is a gift and a sign of the Creator, not because it would itself be divine. The Catechism takes up this canticle to teach that creatures, "each in its own way, reflect a ray of God's infinite wisdom and goodness"^[29]. Contemplation, praise and thanksgiving are thus the true roots of Christian ecology — well before indignation or fear.

The principle of safeguarding creation is finally illuminated by its eschatological horizon. The Catholic faith does not await the destruction of the world, but its transfiguration. The whole of creation is called to be renewed.

"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away." — Revelation 21:1^[30]

This horizon allows no carelessness: precisely because the world will be transfigured and not abolished, the care man takes of it here and now has definitive meaning. Safeguarding creation prepares, in its own measure, the reconciled world of which Scripture speaks. In the spirituality of the Divine Will transmitted to Luisa Piccarreta, this intuition finds an echo: the soul living in God's Will is invited to return, in the name of all creation, the love and glory owed to God for the work of Creation, Redemption and Sanctification — a praise that inanimate creatures cannot render him alone^[31]. To care for creation is thus to cooperate with the Creator's plan, who wills to "unite all things in him" (Eph 1:10).

• What does the Church say about ecology? — the official teaching summarized for the faithful.
• What should we think of ecology? — the apologetic treatment of cultural objections.
• Integral ecology — the synthesis of Laudato si': everything is connected.
• The universal destination of goods — the first principle from which safeguarding creation follows.
• The common good — why the environment is an intergenerational common good.
• Solidarity — degradation strikes the poor first.
• The dignity of the human person — human ecology first.