On July 7, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI released his much-anticipated third encyclical “Caritas in Veritate” (Charity in Truth), in which the Holy Father furthers the work of Pope Paul VIi in considering “integral human development,” or holistic development of the entire human person.
Among the elements which together constitute integral human development, Pope Benedict examines the natural environment and our relationship with it. He confirms that “[t]he environment is God’s gift to everyone, and in our use of it we have a responsibility towards the poor, towards future generations, and towards humanity as a whole.