Vatican document on integral
ecology: Safeguarding Creation is everyone’s responsibility
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| Birds flying into the sunset |
Several Vatican Dicasteries team up to release a document
entitled “Journeying for the care of the common home”, which offers a guide to
all Christians on how to maintain a healthy relationship with Creation.
By Isabella Piro
The Vatican released a document on Thursday that offers a
guide to Catholics, and all Christians, regarding our relationship with God’s
Creation.
Entitled “Journeying for the care of the common home”, the
document coincides with the fifth anniversary of Pope Francis’ encyclical
Laudato sí, which was signed on 24 May 2015 and published on 18 June of that
same year.
The document was drafted by the “Holy See Interdicastery
Table on Integral Ecology”, created in 2015 to evaluate ways to best promote
and implement integral ecology.
Institutions linked to the Holy See, along with several
Bishops’ Conferences, and Catholic organizations, make up the committee.
The text was written prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, but it
highlights the main message of Laudato sí: Everything is connected; each
particular crisis forms part of a single, complex socio-environmental crisis
that requires a true ecological conversion.
First Part: Education and ecological conversion
The first part of the document opens with a reminder of the
need for ecological conversion.
This involves a change in mentality leading us to care for
life and Creation, dialogue with others, and an awareness of the deep
connection between the world’s problems.
Initiatives such as the “Season of Creation“, it says, should be enhanced, along
with monastic traditions that teach contemplation, prayer, work, and service.
These initiatives can help educate people about the link between personal,
social, and environmental balance.
Protecting life and promoting the family
The document then reaffirms the centrality of life and the
human person, because “nature cannot be defended without the defence of every
human life.” From this fact derives the need to develop the concept of “sin
against human life” among younger generations, which can help contrast the
“throwaway culture” with a “caring culture”.
The text also places strong emphasis on the family as a
“protagonist of integral ecology”. When grounded in the basic principles of
“communion and fruitfulness”, the family can become “a privileged place for
education where one learns to respect human beings and Creation”. States,
therefore, are urged to “promote smart policies for family development”.
Centrality of schools and universities
At the same time, schools are invited to acquire “a new
centrality”, in other words, to become a place to develop the capacity for
discernment, critical thinking, and responsible action. The document offers two
suggestions in this regard: (1) to facilitate links between the home, the
school, and the parish; and (2) to launch training projects for “ecological
citizenship”, which should promote among young people “a new model of
relationships” that goes beyond individualism in favor of solidarity,
responsibility, and care.
Universities are invited to centre their curricula on a
backbone of integral ecology. Through their three-fold mission of teaching,
research, and service to society, universities need to encourage students to
engage in “professions that facilitate positive environmental change”. The
document suggests specifically that students should “study the theology of
Creation, which consists in the relationship of the human being with the world”,
while remaining conscious of the fact that caring for Creation requires
“ongoing education” and a true “educational pact” between all institutions
involved in education.
Ecumenical and interreligious dialogue
The document also reaffirms that “the commitment to caring
for our common home is an integral part of Christian life”, and not a secondary
option. Further, care for our common home is “an excellent area” to build
ecumenical and interreligious dialogue and collaboration. The “wisdom” found in
various religions, it says, can encourage a “contemplative and sober” lifestyle
that leads to “overcoming the deterioration of the Planet.”
Ecology of the media
The first part of the document concludes with a chapter
dedicated to communication and its “profound analogy” with the care of our
common home. Both, in fact, are based on “communion, relationship, and
connection”.
In the context of an “ecology of the media”, the media are
urged to highlight the links between “human destiny and the natural
environment”, while empowering citizens, and combating “fake news”.
Second part: Integral ecology and integral human development
The second part of the document opens with the subject of
food, referring to Pope Francis’ words: “whenever food is thrown out it is as
if it were stolen from the table of the poor” (LS, 50). Food waste, therefore,
is condemned as an act of injustice.
The document calls for the promotion of “diversified and
sustainable” agriculture, defence of small producers and natural resources, and
the urgent need for healthy food education, both in quantity and in quality.
There is also a strong call to combat phenomena such as land grabbing and major
agro-industrial projects that pollute the environment, as well as an appeal to
protect biodiversity.
Echoes of this appeal can also be found in the chapter
devoted to water, access to which is “an essential human right”. Here, too,
there is a call to avoid waste and to go beyond the utilitarian criteria that
lead to the privatization of this natural good.
Investing in renewable energy
Along the same lines is an invitation to reduce pollution,
to de-carbonize the energy and economic sectors, and to invest in “clean and
renewable” energy, making it accessible to all.
The seas and oceans also cut to the heart of integral
ecology. They are the “blue lungs of the planet”, and require governance
focused on the common good of the entire human family and founded on the
principle of subsidiarity.
The document also stresses the urgent need to promote a
“circular economy” that does not aim at over-exploitation of productive
resources, but at their long-term maintenance, so that they can be reused. We
must overcome the concept of “rejected waste”, it says, because everything has
value. This, however, will only be possible through positive interaction
between technological innovation, investment in sustainable infrastructure, and
growth in resource productivity.
The private sector is called upon to operate transparently
in the supply chain. The document goes on to call for the reform of fossil fuel
subsidies and the taxation of CO2 emissions.
Socio-economic development
In the field of labour, the document expresses hopes for the
promotion of sustainable socio-economic development, so that poverty might be
eradicated and the marginalized might find paths toward socio-professional
advancement. It also calls for decent work, fair wages, efforts to combat child
labour, and an inclusive economy which promotes the value of the family and
motherhood, along with the prevention and eradication of “new forms of
slavery”, such as human trafficking.
The document says the world of finance needs to play its
part, by aiming for the “primacy of the common good” and working to put an end
to poverty. “The Covid-19 pandemic”, reads the document, “shows how elements of
the system are being questioned, when it reduces welfare, allows speculation
even in misfortune, and oppresses the poorest people”.
The document urges government to close tax havens, sanction
financial institutions involved in illegal operations, and bridge the gap
between those who have access to credit and those who do not. It exhorts
everyone to promote “a style of management of the Church’s goods that is inspired
by transparency, coherence, and courage”, based on a perspective of integral
sustainability.
Civil society, fight against corruption, right to healthcare
Within civil institutions, the document stresses the
“primacy of civil society”, which politics, governments, and administrations
must serve. It calls for the globalization of substantive, social, and
participatory democracy, and a long-term vision based on justice, morality, and
the fight against corruption.
The document says an important aspect is the promotion of
access to justice for all, including the poor, the marginalized, the excluded.
It also encourages governments to “rethink prudently” the prison system, in
order to promote the rehabilitation of prisoners, especially young people
serving time for their first conviction.
The text then dwells on healthcare systems, calling it “a
question of equity and social justice.” It reaffirms the importance of the
right to care. “As ecological networks are degraded”, it reads, “social
networks are also broken down. In both cases, it is the poorest who suffer the
consequences”. The document offers concrete suggestions, including an
examination of the dangers associated with “the rapid spread of viral and
bacterial epidemics”, and the promotion of palliative care.
Importance of climate question
Finally, the interdicasterial document examines the issue of
climate change, saying it has “a profound environmental, ethical, economic,
political, and social ‘relevance’” which “impacts the poor above all.”
Therefore, we first need “a new model of development” that links the fight
against climate change to the fight against poverty, “in tune with the Social
Doctrine of the Church”.
Recalling that “no one acts alone”, the document calls for a
commitment to “low carbon” sustainable development to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions. Proposals made in this area include the reforestation of areas such
as the Amazon rainforest, along with support for the international process
aimed at defining the category of “climate refugee” to ensure them “necessary
legal and humanitarian protections”.
Efforts made by Vatican City State
The last chapter of the text is dedicated to the commitment
of Vatican City State.
There are four operational areas in which the implications
of Laudato sí are applied are: (1) environmental protection (e.g. sorted waste
collection already established in all Vatican offices); (2) protection of water
resources (e.g. closed circuits for fountain water); (3) care for green areas
(e.g. progressive reduction of harmful phytosanitary products); (4) reduced
consumption of energy resources (e.g. in 2008, a photovoltaic system was
installed on the roof of the Nervi Hall, and new energy-saving lighting systems
were installed in the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter’s Square, and the Vatican
Basilica, reducing costs by 60, 70, and 80 percent, respectively).
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