change has so stretched the planet’s capacity that our contemporary lifestyle, unsustainable as it is, can
only precipitate catastrophes, such as those which even now periodically occur in different areas of the
world. The effects of the present imbalance can only be reduced by our decisive action, here and now.
We need to reflect on our accountabilitybefore thosewhowill have to endure thedire consequences.
162. Our difficulty in taking up this challenge seriously has much to do with an ethical and cultural
decline which has accompanied the deterioration of the environment. Men and women of our
postmodern world run the risk of rampant individualism, and many problems of society are connected
with today’s self-centred culture of instant gratification. We see this in the crisis of family and social
ties and the difficulties of recognizing the other. Parents can be prone to impulsive and wasteful
consumption, which then affects their children who find it increasingly difficult to acquire a home of
their own and build a family. Furthermore, our inability to think seriously about future generations is
linked to our inability to broaden the scope of our present interests and to give consideration to those
who remain excluded from development. Let us not only keep the poor of the future inmind, but also
today’s poor, whose life on this earth is brief andwho cannot keep onwaiting. Hence, “in addition to a
fairer sense of intergenerational solidarity there is also an urgent moral need for a renewed sense of
intragenerational solidarity”.
125
125
BENEDICTXVI,
Message for the2010WorldDayof Peace
, 8:AAS 102 (2010), 45.
