and living. More than in ideas or concepts as such, I am interested in how such a spirituality can
motivate us to a more passionate concern for the protection of our world. A commitment this lofty
cannot be sustained by doctrine alone, without a spirituality capable of inspiring us, without an
“interior impulse which encourages, motivates, nourishes and gives meaning to our individual and
communal activity”.
151
Admittedly, Christians have not always appropriated and developed the
spiritual treasures bestowed byGod upon theChurch, where the life of the spirit is not dissociated from
the body or from nature or fromworldly realities, but lived in and with them, in communion with all
that surrounds us.
217. “The external deserts in the world are growing, because the internal deserts have become so
vast”.
152
For this reason, the ecological crisis is also a summons to profound interior conversion. It
must be said that some committed and prayerful Christians, with the excuse of realism andpragmatism,
tend to ridicule expressions of concern for the environment. Others are passive; they choose not to
change their habits and thus become inconsistent. Sowhat they all need is an “ecological conversion”,
whereby the effects of their encounter with Jesus Christ become evident in their relationship with the
world around them. Living our vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork is essential to a life of
virtue; it is not anoptional or a secondary aspect of ourChristian experience.
218. In calling to mind the figure of Saint Francis of Assisi, we come to realize that a healthy
relationship with creation is one dimension of overall personal conversion, which entails the
recognition of our errors, sins, faults and failures, and leads to heartfelt repentance and desire to
change. The Australian bishops spoke of the importance of such conversion for achieving
reconciliation with creation: “To achieve such reconciliation, we must examine our lives and
acknowledge the ways inwhichwe have harmedGod’s creation through our actions and our failure to
act. We need to experience a conversion, or change ofheart”.
153
219. Nevertheless, self-improvement on the part of individuals will not by itself remedy the
extremely complex situation facing our world today. Isolated individuals can lose their ability and
freedom to escape the utilitarianmindset, and end up prey to an unethical consumerismbereft of social
151
ApostolicExhortation
EvangeliiGaudium
(24Nov2013), 261:AAS 105 (2013), 1124.
152
BENEDICTXVI,
Homily for theSolemn Inaugurationof thePetrineMinistry
(24April 2005):AAS 97 (2005), 710.
153
AUSTRALIANCATHOLICBISHOPS’CONFERENCE,
ANewEarth–TheEnvironmentalChallenge
(2002).
