Octogesima adveniens
Octogesima adveniens is the incipit of the 14 May 1971 Apostolic Letter addressed by Pope Paul VI to Cardinal Maurice Roy, president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity and of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, on the occasion of the eightieth anniversary of Pope Leo XIII's encyclical Rerum novarum.
It discusses themes such as securing democratic foundations in society.
The letter is one of the first magisterial documents to mention explicitly the topic of the preservation of environment, an issue that was fairly new in the political sphere at the time of the text's publication (no. 21). Emphasising the ecclesial doctrine to which the goods of the Earth are dedicated to all people (no. 43), Paul VI criticizes the modern practices of exploiting nature. Each property, including the gifts of nature, stands under the principle of the common use (usus communis), from which no human being must be excluded, the encyclical says. Unlike Leo XIII’s encyclical Rerum novarum, Paul VI extends this postulate also on the natural environment and stresses the responsibility for future generations (no. 47). Thereby, Octogesima adveniens anticipates central motifs of the sustainability principle.[1]
References
- ↑ Cf. Thorsten Philipp, Grünzonen einer Lerngemeinschaft: Umweltschutz als Handlungs-, Wirkungs- und Erfahrungsort der Kirche. Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3865811776, p. 94 f.