Vatican official warns ecological damage has biggest impact on poor

Published: 2007-10-30

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A Vatican official warned that ecological damage has the greatest impact on the world's poor, who are caught in a "vicious circle of poverty and environmental degradation." Addressing the United Nations Oct. 29, Archbishop Celestino Migliore emphasized what he called the "moral imperative" to protect the environment even while promoting economic growth. The duty to protect the environment "must not be sacrificed on the altar of economic development," said the archbishop, the Vatican's U.N. representative. "My delegation believes that, at its core, the environmental crisis is a moral challenge. It calls us to examine how we use and share the goods of the earth and what we pass on to future generations," Archbishop Migliore said. A copy of his text was released at the Vatican. The issue of ecology should not be seen in isolation from other social and justice questions, such as poverty, he said. "We must consider how, in most countries today, it is the poor and the powerless who most directly bear the brunt of environmental degradation," he said.

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