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Gulf Pine Catholic • July 27, 2018 11 Vatican’s former legal chief says canon law should include care of creation ROME, ITALY ( CNA ) -- The Vatican’s former top advisor on canon law has made a public call to insert legal obligations for the care of creation into the Church’s universal canon law -- making it a legal duty for Catholics not only “not to harm” the environment, but to improve it. According to veteran Vatican watcher Andrea Tornielli, Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio, former head of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, made the proposal during a July 12 event in Rome titled “Dialogue on Catholic Investments for the Energy Transition.” During the closed-door discussion, representatives from the Vatican and Catholic organizations spoke about how to invest responsibly towards a transition to renewable energies. In an interview with Vatican Insider , Coccopalmerio discussed canons 208-221 of the Church’s Code of Canon Law, which enumerate “Obligations and rights of all the faithful.” This section “outlines an ‘identikit’ of the faithful and of their life as a Christian,” the cardinal said, but noted that nothing is mentioned “about one of the most serious duties: that of protecting and promoting the natural environment in which the faithful live.” The proposal he outlined, which he suggested could be submitted to the pope but considered by his former department, would be to ask for a new canon to be added to the obligations of the all faithful, specifically treating environmental responsibility. Coccopalmerio, whose resignation was accepted by Pope Francis in April this year, went on to give his own ideas of how it might be worded: “Every faithful Christian, mindful that creation is the common house, has the grave duty not only not to damage, but also to Love is the heart of doctrine on family, Pope Francis says VATICAN CITY ( CNA/EWTN News ) -- In a mes- sage to Antillean youth, Pope Francis said love is the core of the Church’s doctrine on the family, which is something every young person is responsible for carry- ing forward. To understand what this love means, the pope urged young people to both read and study chapter four of his 2016 post-synodal apostolic exhortation on the family, Amoris Laetitia , which is dedicated to “Love in Marriage.” “I tell you that the core of Amoris Laetitia was chapter four. How to live love. How to live love in the family,” he said, and told youth to read and talk about the chapter with each other, because “there is a lot of strength here to continue going forward” and to trans- form family life. Love “has its own strength. And love never ends,” he said, explaining that if they learn how to truly love as God taught, “you will be transforming something that is for all of eternity.” Pope Francis sent a video message to participants in the youth assembly of the Antilles Bishops Conference, which is taking place in the Archdiocese of Saint-Pierre and Fort-de-France, in Martinique, from July 10-23. In his message, the pope asked youth whether they were really living as young people, or if they had become “aged youth,” because “if you are aged young people you are not going to do anything. You have to be youth who are young, with all the strength that youth has to transform.” He said young people should not be “settled” in life, because being “settled” means one is at a standstill and “things don’t go forward.” “You have to un-stall what has been stalled and start to fight,” the pope said. “You want to transform, you want to carry forward and you have made your own the directives of the post-synodal exhortation on the family in order to carry the family forward and transform the family of the Caribbean,” he said. In order to promote and carry the family forward, one must understand both the present and the past, Pope Francis said. “You are preparing to transform something that has been given to you by your elders. You have received the history of yesterday, the traditions of yesterday,” he said, adding that people “cannot do anything in the present nor the future if you are not rooted in the past, in your history, in your culture, in your family; if you do not have roots that are well grounded.” To this end, he told youth to spend time with their grandparents and other elderly people, and to take what they learn and “carry it forward.” improve, both through everyday behavior, and through specific initiatives, the natural environment in which each person is called to live.” The canons Coccopalmerio referenced address gen- eral obligations for Catholics relating to the practice of the faith and maintaining communion with the Church. They do not address specific moral obligations or par- ticular doctrinal teachings. Those canons do not, for example, include the Church’s prohibition of artificial contraception or the obligation to observe just labor practices. Drawing inspiration from Laudato si’ , Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical on the environment, participants at the event agreed on the Catholic Program of Disinvestment, sponsored by the Catholic Climate Movement, which urges ecclesial institutions to make a public commit- ment to move away from financial investments in fossil fuels. Participants also highlighted the importance of pur- suing ethical investment strategies in line with the social doctrine of the Catholic Church, according to Tornielli. Pope Francis has often expressed his environmental concerns and, in his message on the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation in 2016, he said main- taining our common home ought to be considered a work of mercy. “We usually think of the works of mercy individu- ally and in relation to a specific initiative: hospitals for the sick, soup kitchens for the hungry, shelters for the homeless, schools for those to be educated, the confes- sional and spiritual direction for those needing counsel and forgiveness,” the pope said in that message. Looking at the concept of works of mercy, “we see that the object of mercy is human life itself and every- thing it embraces,” he said. Francis proposed caring for creation as “a complement” to the two traditional sets of seven corporal and spiritual works of mercy. “May the works of mercy also include care for our common home,” he said, explaining that as a spiritual work, care for creation “calls for a grateful contempla- tion of God’s world which allows us to discover in each thing a teaching which God wishes to hand on to us.” In a conference held earlier this month to mark the third anniversary of the publication of Laudato si’ , Pope Francis said a change of heart is needed when it comes to issues related to the environment. Future actions which promote the care of creation, “presuppose a transformation on a deeper level, namely a change of hearts and minds,” he said, adding that while this obligation binds all religious communities, Christians have a special role to play. Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio speaks at a Vatican press conference Sept. 8, 2015. Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA