His mountain strolls, his walks through woods, the silent contemplations on the countryside, the prayers when coming face to face with the magnificence of the Dolomites. All this reflected a love and respect towards nature which John Paul II manifested and nourished throughout the course of his Pontificate. A real, concrete love, lived "hands on" and also defended through appeals, admonishments and condemnations against the threat of "a natural holocaust". At the root of all this, a fundamental lesson: the return to a sober life-style, a life against consumerism's greed and aggressions, with full respect for all that God has given us, and for future generations.

The dawn of this "eco-conversion" occured in 1979, with the creation of St. Francis as "celestial patron" of ecology cultivators. "How can we not see in this example", asked at that time the Pope during his Angelus prayers on 28th March 1982 on the occasion of World Ecology Day, "a particular urgent lesson for our times, in which man, with worrying agility, is slowly destroying the vital environment which the Creator's wisdom has built for him?". Hence a warning: "St. Francis's testimony induces today's mankind not to behave like dissident predators where nature is concerned, but to assume responsibility for it, taking all care so that everything stays healthy and integrated, so as to offer a welcoming and friendly environment even to those who succeed us."

"Since the Church does not, as yet, have a treaty on Christian ecology", the Pope said in September 1985 to Lanner, then President of the Council of Europe's Department for the Defence of the Environment adding that he should not hesitate to make his voice heard on the object of defending the environment and human life. The struggle against the massacre or pollution of the Universe is a question of wisdom, solidarity and co-operation." On that occasion, the Pope underlined the "disgust and fear" expressed by people in the face of a Universe "looted for economic, materialistic, often hedonistic and egoistic purposes". Certainly, not a condemnation against progress, but the application of "brakes" to the uncontrolled lust for profit, for a better sharing of the world's wealth, deplorably wasted.

In the Pope's view, the ecology issue is a moral one. In 1999 he admonished: "The interests and selfishness of super powers risk compromising world ecology". A few months later, he declared that offending nature "is a sin and a contempt of man and the value of life". In the burning summer of 2003, he came out with the following condemnation: "Whoever provokes bush fires destroys the environmental heritage, a precious gift for the whole of humanity". The previous year, two of the strongest moments in the Pope's commitment to ecology: on 25th August 2002, in Johannesburg, on the eve of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, the Vatican launches an appeal for an "ecological conversion", and the Pope makes a specific plea for an "effective commitment" by all the world's governments aimed at "a sustainable development and an invitation to take the ecological vocation seriously - an urgency of our times".

On 21st December 2002, the Pope reiterates his appeal and intervenes on the question of pacifism and environmentalism in the course of his extending Christmas greetings to Cardinals, the Roman Curia and the Pontifical family. "The Planet is bleeding from many conflicts, and others threat to flare up with renewed violence. Not only the horizon is lined with bloodshed, but also human negligence is contributing to the devastation of our environment. It is necessary for all humanity, and in particular for our children's future, affirms the Pope, to have an ecological conscience as an expression of the responsibility towards ourselves, towards others, and towards creation.

Caltanissetta, Leandro Janni, President,
"Italia Nostra" - Sicily