The Garden of God: Toward A Human Ecology

Scientific Knowledge and Technology Are Always Applied in Full Respect for International Rights

102 Environment, Science & Technology Scientific Knowledge and Technology Are Always Applied in Full Respect for International Rights From Angelus, Castel Gandolfo, July 29, 2007 Last Sunday, recalling the “Note” that Pope Benedict XV addressed to the belligerent countries in the First World War on 1 August ninety years ago, I dwelled on the theme of peace. Now a new occasion invites me to reflect on another important subject connected with this theme. Precisely today, in fact, is the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of the charter of the IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency, instituted with the mandate to “accelerate and enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health, and prosperity throughout the world.”11 The Holy See, fully approving the goals of this organization, is a member of it since its founding, and continues to support its activity. The epochal changes that have occurred in the last fifty years demonstrate how, in the difficult crossroads in which humanity finds itself, the commitment to encourage non-proliferation of nuclear arms, to promote a progressive and agreed-upon nuclear disarmament, and to support the use of peaceful and safe nuclear technology for authentic development, respecting the environment and ever mindful of the most disadvantaged populations, is always more present and urgent. 11. International Atomic Energy Agency, The Statute of the IAEA, art. 2. 103 Environment, Science & Technology I therefore hope that the efforts of those who work with determination to bring about these three objectives may be achieved, with the goal that “[t]he resources which would be saved could then be employed in projects of development capable of benefiting all their people, especially the poor.”12 It is also good on this occasion to repeat how: “In place of... the arms race, there must be substituted a common effort to mobilize resources toward objectives of moral, cultural and economic development, ‘redefining the priorities and hierarchies of values .’”13 Again we entrust to the intercession of Mary Most Holy our prayer for peace, in particular so that scientific knowledge and technology are always applied with a sense of responsibility and for the common good, in full respect for international rights. Let us pray so that men live in peace and that they may be as brothers, sons of one Father: God. Strengthening the Alliance between Man and the Environment From Angelus, Castel Gandolfo, September 16, 2007 Today is the twentieth anniversary of the adoption of the Montreal Protocol on substances that impoverish the ozone layer, causing serious damage to the human being and the ecosystem. In the past two decades, thanks to exemplary collaboration in the international community between politics, science, and 12. Benedict XVI, Message for the 2006 World Day of Peace, n. 13, January 1, 2006. 13. Catechism of the Catholic Church (1993), n. 2438. ...