Pope John Paul II warned today that the world was caught in an ecological crisis that violates human rights and ''lays bare the depth of man's moral crisis.''
Using uncommonly strong language in the first papal document devoted entirely to the environment, the Pope spared virtually no one from responsibility for the planet's miseries.
But he spoke in especially withering tones of industrialized nations, the ''privileged few,'' which he accused of selfishly wasting resources while millions of people live in squalor. He added that while poverty in some countries may explain unsound ecological practices, it was no excuse.
''Countries in the process of industrialization are not morally free to repeat the errors made in the past by others,'' he said, ''and recklessly continue to damage the environment through industrial pollutants, radical deforestation or unlimited exploitation of nonrenewable resources.'' Everyone's Concern
The ecological collapse facing the earth is everyone's concern, the Pope said, and he lamented that existing international bodies and treaties were not up to the task of producing a broad plan of action. Among his suggestions was that ''the right to a safe environment'' be included in a revised version of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
His views were expressed in a document called ''Peace With God the Creator, Peace With All of Creation,'' representing his annual message for the Roman Catholic Church's World Day of Peace, held on Jan. 1.
John Paul chooses a different topic each year, and sends copies of his remarks to international organizations and to heads of state. This year's message was translated into eight languages, and for the first time, coming a few days after his meeting with President Mikhail S. Gorbachev of the Soviet Union, one of them was Russian.
Although the Pope did not single out any countries for criticism, the major industrialized nations fell within almost every category of his attack.
''It is manifestly unjust that a privileged few should continue to accumulate excess goods, squandering available resources, while masses of people are living in conditions of misery at the very lowest level of subsistence,'' he said. ''Today, the dramatic threat of ecological breakdown is teaching us the extent to which greed and selfishness, both individual and collective, are contrary to the order of creation.'' 'Unscrupulous Development'
John Paul talked of the atmospheric perils created by the burning of fossil fuels, the destruction of forests and the use of certain herbicides and propellants. Returning to the theme of a major discourse two years ago, he denounced ''unacceptable experimentation'' in human genetics and ''unscrupulous development'' of new forms of plant and animal life.
Often, he said, pollution results from a pursuit of profits that deny workers' their dignity. At root, the Pope said, ''the ecological crisis is a moral issue,'' reflecting a worldwide desire for ''instant gratification and consumerism'' regardless of the consequences.