Vatican theological commission defines ‘sin against creation and the Creator’ in new document

ROME (OSV News) — The International Theological Commission published a new document Sept. 2 calling for ecological conversion due to “sin against creation and the Creator.”

The more than 29,000 word text, titled “Caring for Our Common Home: A Responsible and Fraternal Response to the Triune God,” was approved by a majority of members of the commission in a July vote and authorized for release by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, after being presented to Pope Leo XIV.

More than a decade after the release of Pope Francis’ landmark encyclical “Laudato Si’,” the theological commission goes beyond Pope Francis’ use of the phrase “ecological sin” by proposing what it describes as more precise terminology: “sin against creation and the Creator.”

“As Pope Leo XIV emphasized, we believe it is appropriate to favor a formulation that simultaneously implies both the harm inflicted on nature and the failure to recognize, or even the rejection, of the Creator’s plan, which entails entrusting to human beings the stewardship and care of our common home,” the document says.

“We propose understanding this sin against our Common Home as a ‘sin against creation and against the Creator,’ insofar as it violates the meaning of creation intended by God the Creator.”

— Challenges of ‘ecological turning point’ —

The commission explained that by failing to care for “our Common Home” with sufficient wisdom and long-term vision, “we not only fail to respect God’s plan and mistreat creation, but we also harm our neighbors, especially the poorest and future generations.”

“Sin against creation,” it says, “therefore, concerns our relationship with God the Creator, with our neighbors, and with creation itself, distorting the three relationships that define us.”

Published only in Italian, the document is divided into three chapters, describing a “threefold transformation” in culture’s relationship to nature since the 16th century: the loss of the perception of nature as God’s creation; the emergence of an increasingly anthropocentric and predatory vision in the relationship between humanity and Creation; and the spread of an ecological crisis on a planetary level.

Msgr. Piero Coda, the secretary general of the International Theological Commission, said that the document’s “proposal to ‘understand sin against the environment in a similar way to how the notions of social sin and structures of sin have progressively consolidated’ is of particular importance.”

“This underscores the profound seriousness of the ‘ecological turning point’ that challenges our conscience today, calling for a conversion that — in order to be fully effective on the cultural, social, economic, and political levels — must first and foremost find expression on the spiritual and religious levels,” he wrote in a commentary on the document published by Vatican News.

— Creation reflects the Trinity —

The first chapter examines how all creation carries an imprint of the Trinity — Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit — arguing that since creation bears the Creator God’s imprint, ecological questions always have a religious dimension.

It quotes St. Hildegard of Bingen’s idea of creation as “a second Scripture,” as well as other Doctors of the Church — St. Augustine of Hippo, St. Bonaventure, and St. Thomas Aquinas. The commission also develops a dialogue with some scientific and philosophical views of the cosmos, examining how the Big Bang and quantum physics are compatible with faith.

The second chapter focuses on the human person’s place in the created world, using the creation narrative in Genesis to examine how humanity was given the original task of dominion, custody, and cultivation of the land, placing exploitation of the land, pollution, and biodiversity within the Genesis narrative of the fall of man.

Citing United Nations environmental reports, the document catalogs what it calls alarming levels of biodiversity loss, air and water pollution, and the environmental toll of armed conflict, noting that the poorest nations and communities suffer the worst consequences despite bearing the least responsibility for causing them.

The document rejects the two extremes of “predatory anthropocentrism,” or treating creation as mere property for exploitation, and radical biocentrism and “deep ecology” movements that strip humanity of its unique status within creation. Instead the theological commission puts forward the idea of “situated anthropocentrism” — an expression first used by Pope Francis which has been taken up by Pope Leo XIV that describes the human vocation as a “steward” and a “servant of creation.”

This twofold vocation finds its culmination in the Eucharist, which the document describes as an “ecological school” from which flows “a spirituality capable of supporting and encouraging the ecological conversion that we so urgently need to undertake as a human family.”

— Practical guidelines for ecological conversion —

The third chapter offers some practical guidelines and principles for “ecological conversion,” organized around different fundamental relationships of the person with God, with oneself, with creation, and with others, highlighting the importance of mindful consumption, balanced rhythms of work and rest with the Benedictine idea of “ora et labora,” respect for life, asceticism, reverence for creation, and listening to the cry of the Earth and the poor. It also surveys the contribution of other world religions to ideas of environmental stewardship.

“From the standpoint of the Christian faith, the doors are open to interreligious cooperation in the common task of respectfully caring for all Creation, in the service of the flourishing of life and communion with the Transcendent, who is at the origin and is the foundation of all life,” it says.

The document, written by a subcommission that met between 2022 and 2025, was published during the Church’s Season of Creation established by Pope Francis, which runs from the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation on Sept. 1 until Oct. 4, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi.

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