The fruits of environmentalism and of social justice (Part 1)

An emerging trend among Catholic institutions of higher education is to see themselves as direct agents of social justice. Many host social justice events, institute policies such as socially responsible investing and promote awareness of issues such as poverty and climate change. While there is nothing wrong with these activities per se, they often deemphasize the Church’s teaching on social justice. There are many unique attributes to Catholic social teaching. In this set of articles I shall focus on two, which are how Catholic Social Teaching helps leads us to Christ and the role of the virtues in acting justly in the world.

Two popular movements spreading among Catholic universities are the Laudato Si’ and the Economy of Francesco (EoF) movements. (The “Francesco” refers not to Pope Francis, but to St. Francis of Assisi.) To repeat, it is good to work for the protection of the natural environment and for the economic betterment of people. As Catholics we should wholeheartedly support these goals. A reasonable question to ask, however, is whether Catholic universities are working toward these goals in a way consistent with the Catholic teaching.

Our exploration of this question will come in three parts. In this first article we’ll look at what the Church teaches about the natural environment and our relationship to it. The second explores economic life. The final evaluates these two movements by asking if their fruits lead people to Christ and a life of virtue.

Authentic Catholic environmentalism

Catholic teaching on the environment encompasses a specific understanding of God and of the role of the human person in creation. Chapter ten of the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church is worth reading in its entirety because it provides one of the best summaries on the topic. The encyclical Laudato Si’ extends many of these themes. By the way, it was Pope St. John Paul II, not Pope Francis, who proclaimed St. Francis of Assisi as the patron saint of those promoting a healthy ecology (Inter Sanctos).

Modern Catholic teaching has always connected authentic environmentalism with human flourishing and our vocation in Christ. In the inaugural encyclical on the Church’s social doctrine, Pope Leo XIII outlined the Catholic approach to the world around us by stating that the “things of earth cannot be understood or valued aright without taking into consideration the life to come, the life that will know no death” (Rerum Novarum, 21). Pope St. John XXIII noted that the creation accounts in Genesis reveal a deep respect for the natural world and that science brings nature to serve human beings (Mater et Magister, 196-197).

The Second Vatican Council proclaimed that the riches of the earth are intended by God for the benefit of all people. It taught that, “under the leadership of justice and in the company of charity, created goods should be in abundance for all.” (Gaudium et Spes, 69). Pope St. Paul VI wrote that Genesis “teaches us that the whole of creation is for man, that he has been charged to give it meaning by his intelligent activity, to complete and perfect it by his own efforts and to his own advantage.” (Populorum Progressio, 22). It is the hope for heaven and a deep respect for the divinely instituted telos of the natural world that makes Catholic environmentalism truly Catholic.

As the twentieth century progressed, the Church became more concerned about the degradation of the environment. The magisterium increasingly emphasized the link between the state of the environment and social justice. Pope Paul’s Octogesima Adveniens declared environmental destruction to be a “social problem” (OA, 21).

Pope John Paul II attributed the disorder experienced in modern times to a forgetting of the proper relationship between humans and creation (see “The Ecological Crisis: A Common Responsibility”, 5). In Centesimus Annus he linked environmental issues with disordered desires. His message is worth quoting at length:

… In his desire to have and to enjoy rather than to be and to grow, man consumes the resources of the earth and his own life in an excessive and disordered way. At the root of the senseless destruction of the natural environment lies an anthropological error, which unfortunately is widespread in our day. Man, who discovers his capacity to transform and in a certain sense create the world through his own work, forgets that this is always based on God’s prior and original gift of the things that are. Man thinks that he can make arbitrary use of the earth, subjecting it without restraint to his will, as though it did not have its own requisites and a prior God-given purpose, which man can indeed develop but must not betray. Instead of carrying out his role as a co-operator with God in the work of creation, man sets himself up in place of God and thus ends up provoking a rebellion on the part of nature, which is more tyrannized than governed by him. (CA, 37)

Pope John Paul also brought to the forefront the concept of “human ecology” and even “social ecology” (CA, 38; Evangelium Vitae, 42). Pope Benedict XVI pointed out that “integral human development” happens in an ecological context (Caritas in Veritate [CV], 48).

Both Pope John Paul and Pope Benedict XVI connected respect for nature with respect for human life. John Paul noted that the “most profound and serious indication of the moral implications underlying the ecological problem is the lack of respect for life evident in many patterns of environmental pollution . . . Respect for life, and above all for the dignity of the human person, is the ultimate guiding norm for any sound economic, industrial or scientific progress.” (“The Ecological Crisis”, 7).

Pope Benedict put it more bluntly when he wrote that, “The way humanity treats the environment influences the way it treats itself, and vice versa.”(CV, 51). In fact, he titled his 2010 Message for the Celebration of the World Day of Peace “If You Want To Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation”. In its own way, the encyclical Laudato Si’ continues this tradition. The encyclical and the movement it engendered will be discussed in the third installment of this series.

Extreme views on the environment

Over time, several erroneous ideas arose in terms of our relationship with nature. The Compendium cautions us to steer clear of two extremes. The first is “the utilitarian reduction of nature to a mere object to be manipulated and exploited.” The second is to, “absolutize nature and place it above the dignity of the human person himself.

In this latter case, one can go so far as to divinize nature or the earth, as can readily be seen in certain ecological movements that seek to gain an internationally guaranteed institutional status for their beliefs”. (Compendium, 463). Indeed, the Pontifical Council for Culture – Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue warns us that New Age thinking contradicting Christ’s teachings has entered the environmental movement. In this view, there is a “resacralisation of the earth, Mother Earth or Gaia”. Furthermore, the “warmth of Mother Earth, whose divinity pervades the whole of creation, is held to bridge the gap between creation and the transcendent Father-God of Judaism and Christianity, and removes the prospect of being judged by such a Being.” (Jesus Christ the Bearer of the Water of Life. A Christian Reflection on the “New Age”, 2.3.1.; also see CV, 48)

Authentic Catholic environmentalism is rooted in the moral life, our telos and our relationship with God. Indeed, the Catechism of the Catholic Church places the Church’s environmental teaching in the context of the seventh commandment (“you shall not steal”) (CCC, 2415). In the words of Pope Benedict, nature “is destined to be ‘recapitulated’ in Christ at the end of time” (CV, 48).

The way we treat the natural world should reflect a spirit of thanksgiving in that nature is meant to support human flourishing and to get us to our ultimate destiny of heaven. In the next article we’ll explore some of the Church’s teaching on economic and social justice.