Cardinal Parolin: 'We are part of an interdependent human family'

By Sr. Francine-Marie Cooper

Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin released a video message on Friday sent to participants at the screening of a documentary film "Together Alone: The Surprise of Francis," by director Gualtiero Peirce, at the “Cinema for Creation” Festival in San Giorgio, Padua, which started on February 9.

Everything is interconnected

In his message, Cardinal Parolin expressed how “very significant and particularly relevant” the title of the event is: "Nourished by beauty and love: Forces that save the world."

In our historical context, characterized by “conflicts, selfishness, indifference, and an inability to listen to others,” the act of collaborating together becomes even more important, he added.

The Vatican Secretary of State reminded the people gathered at the festival that Pope Francis has often emphasized the interconnectedness of everything, which “leads us to a gradual awareness that we are part of a single, interdependent human family.”

Our common home is more than the environment

This awareness, said Cardinal Parolin, “demands a transformation in international policies as well as in our daily behaviors,” and these must be “oriented towards a careful stewardship of our common home,” he added.

Care for our common home does not only concern the environment, but also our responsibilities towards our neighbour and towards God, the Cardinal said.

He described how this “responsible transformation of our behaviors can only occur through a comprehensive ecological conversion.” Looking towards Holy Week, he added, “our journey of conversion must be nourished through the two themes that are at the center of your Initiative, beauty and love.”

It is love that creates bonds and leads the person out of themselves, the Cardinal said.

And he continued, “It is important then to continue to maintain a lively attention to the wonders of creation and their care and enhancement, recognizing the beauty that surrounds us, and strengthening that covenant between human beings and the environment.”

The recognition of beauty helps us to be grateful, and gratitude for Creation urges us to pass on this gift to those who come after us, Cardinal Parolin.

Gratitude helps us to move on from the “culture of waste currently predominant in our society to a culture of care as an expression of our comprehensive ecological conversion,” he added.

Integral ecological culture is necessary

Cardinal Parolin highlighted that Pope Francis distinguished “this ecological conversion with the qualifying adjective ‘integral,’ which requires a different way of thinking and seeing.”

It is not enough for an individual to take action, he insisted, but “individual conversion must indeed be accompanied by communal conversion, implementing dialogue at both local and international levels that promotes real human, integral, and sustainable development, and fosters education for integral ecology capable of adopting a new perspective and valuing the driving force of beauty and love.”

Cardinal Parolin concluded by congratulating the initiators of the event and encouraging them to “proceed joyfully along this path of integral ecological conversion.”