Ten Commandments for the Environment

In this document Bishop Giampaolo Crepaldi, Secretary in 2005 to the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, discusses the importance of introducing the idea of the natural world into the relationship between God and humankind. In ten main sections he summarizes the church’s teachings on ecology based on the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church. The main message of these ten ways of life – or commandments – is that humankind should be the administrator and bear the ultimate responsibility for God’s Creation. As well, he discusses the idea that nature has been placed in humankind’s hands to be used responsibly and prudently.