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all without distinction and nobody can claim any particular rights. Instead, we have lost the sense of the communion of goods, rushing to turn these goods into private property.
(St Ambrose, On the Gospel of St Luke)
The right to private ownership, therefore, has strict limits, set in particular by the urgent need of others. The environment is a prime example of a good that is essentially shared, and is not to be monopolised by powerful individuals and groups.
The loss of beauty and diversity
Human activity has always shaped its environment, including many places now considered areas of great ‘natural beauty? But more recently economic growth, technology, urbanisation and the shift in land-ownership from small farmers to powerful corporations have magnified the scale of this human impact. Grasslands and forests are destroyed for commercial gain, the oceans are over-exploited, species become extinct. Our need for beauty and our communion with the other creatures of the earth are also denied.
III. UNDERSTANDING THE ‘SIGNS OF THE TIMES?
IV. REDISCOVERING MORAL & SCRIPTURAL FOUNDATIONS
Creation has value in itself .....
Creation has value because it reveals God ...
Human beings are dependent but responsible ...
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