Pope Benedict XVI Blog

Vatican Newspaper Slams the Copenhagen Summit over Population Control, "Nihilism"

By John-Henry Westen

COPENHAGEN, December 18, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a front-page commentary in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano yesterday, the President of the Vatican Bank took the Copenhagen summit to task over its "nihilism," and consequent emphasis on population control and de-industrialization.

"Nihilistic thought, with its rejection of any objective truth and values causes serious damage when applied to economics," wrote Ettore Gotti Tedeschi. He recalled as an example the "disastrous consequences" of Malthus' argument that population growth causes poverty, as well as the theory that the economy is morally autonomous, which he said has led to an "overly consumerist and materialistic" mentality.

However, he said that, when applied to environmental issues, nihilism produces "even more serious damage." In this case it leads to the attempt "to solve climate problems - where much confusion reigns - through lowering the birth rate and de-industrialization, rather than through the promotion of values that lead the individual to his original dignity."

Tedeschi criticized the Copenhagen climate conference for applying such nihilistic thinking to the environment, an approach that he says causes "more conflicts than solutions."
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Countering such "population control" nihilism, see Pope Benedict's "Message for World Day of Peace 2010," where the "environment must be seen as God’s gift to all people...".

posted by Dr. Denice Hanley, DPM, M.Div. @ 8:24 AM