CSDC 465

The Magisterium underscores human responsibility for the preservation of a sound and healthy environment for all.⁹⁷⁷ Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 34: AAS 80AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 80 (1988) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1988), 559-560. “If humanity today succeeds in combining the new scientific capacities with a strong ethical dimension, it will certainly be able to promote the environment as a home and a resource for man and for all men, and will be able to eliminate the causes of pollution and to guarantee adequate conditions of hygiene and health for small groups as well as for vast human settlements. Technology that pollutes can also cleanse, production that amasses can also distribute justly, on condition that the ethic of respect for life and human dignity, for the rights of today's generations and those to come, prevails”.⁹⁷⁸ 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.