Ecumenical Patriarch: Ecological responsibility is a ‘categorical imperative’ for humanity

“We shall continue, in word and deed, to promote the ecological vision of the Holy Great Church of Christ and the eco-friendly dynamism of the eucharistic, ascetic, and doxological relationship with creation,” Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I emphasised in his message for the Day of Prayer for the Environment .

His All-Holiness explained that the state of the environment is connected to the way humanity understands freedom and its relationship with God.

“The multidimensional contemporary ecological crisis is a crisis of human freedom, of our religion and philosophy, of our ethos and our culture. What comes first is the “harmful alteration” of our freedom — our severance and alienation from the Source of Life; what follows is conduct destructive of the natural environment.”

“Humanity must at last cease acting as though it does not know and definitively cast aside the illusion that planet Earth can in perpetuity withstand the burdens and destruction caused by human activity, or that nature has the power to renew itself of its own accord,” Patriarch Bartholomew I added.

His All-Holiness recalled that the Ecumenical Patriarchate has undertaken initiatives to protect the…