CSDC 463

A correct understanding of the environment prevents the utilitarian reduction of nature to a mere object to be manipulated and exploited. At the same time, it must not absolutize nature and place it above the dignity of the human person himself. In this latter case, one can go so far as to divinize nature or the earth, as can readily be seen in certain ecological movements that seek to gain an internationally guaranteed institutional status for their beliefs.⁹⁷³ Cf., for example, Pontifical Council for Culture - Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, Jesus Christ the Bearer of the Water of Life. A Christian Reflection on the “New Age”, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Vatican City 2003, p. 33. The Magisterium finds the motivation for its opposition to a concept of the environment based on ecocentrism and on biocentrism in the fact that “it is being proposed that the ontological and axiological difference between men and other living beings be eliminated, since the biosphere is considered a biotic unity of undifferentiated value. Thus man's superior responsibility can be eliminated in favour of an egalitarian consideration of the ‘dignity' of all living beings”.⁹⁷⁴ John Paul II, Address to participants in a convention on “The Environment and Health” (24 March 1997), 5: L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, 9 April 1997, p. 2.