“‘Thou shall not kill’ is absolute value” – Pope Francis

A Philippine Star columnist, Chit Pedrosa, reacting to the statement of Pope Francis that the commandment “Thou shall not kill” is “an absolute value”, wrote that the Pope’s statement is “confusing”. She quoted some bishops who were reported to have said that it is not absolute.

The Pope’s statement is contained in his letter to an international conference in Norway on climate change. Here he refers to his encyclical “Laudato Si” where life in this endangered planet has absolute value. Both humans and planet are so threatened to total destruction that there is no more room for exception because of the intimate interconnectedness of all created things. Simply said, in the present existence of human and planetary life there is no objective, purpose or end that can justify destroying one single, individual existing being or creature, with soul or spirit or without it. Why?

Because ALL THINGS HUMAN AND NON-HUMAN that exist are intimately connected. Moreover, the Creator is NEVER separated from His creatures even for a split second! This is why the Church keeps repeating what St. Peter the first pope wrote to the early Christians: “In Him we live and move and have our being.”

To live peacefully with one another and with the environment we need to always have the sense of God, sense of the Sacred, the “Sacra Mentalitas” or the Creation Spirituality about which the Indigenous Peoples are more known to possess.