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Feb 28, 2013

"That respect for nature may grow"

With Pope Benedict XVI having vacated the Chair of Peter a few hours ago–with the Church now in a time of Sede Vanante and our heads spinning with emotion and memories of a historic day–Catholics across the globe join in prayer for the Pope Emeritus and the election of the next Successor of Peter.

And Catholic ecologists will certainly also join in the final prayer intention of Pope Benedict XVI as Supreme Pontiff. 
According to the Vatican Information Service:
Vatican City, 28 February 2013 (VIS) – Pope Benedict's general prayer intention for March is: 
"That respect for nature may grow with the awareness that all creation is God's work entrusted to human responsibility."
And we also join in a special way in his mission intention: "That bishops, priests, and deacons may be...
Feb 17, 2013

A farewell tribute: The making of the once and future "green pope"

Why did Benedict XVI engage modern issues like ecology? His theological training holds clues.

My writings on the Catholic perspective of ecology owe much to Pope Benedict XVI. This blog in particular has provided a real-time examination of the pontiff’s words and deeds related to abiding by and protecting nature.

And now—with the sudden and shocking news of his renouncing the Chair of Peter—we Catholic ecologists must say farewell to a pontiff that not only followed his predecessor’s ecological thought and practice, but escalated them well beyond what anyone had ever expected.

Indeed, Benedict XVI has been called the green pope by more than one news outlet. The question is, why this interest in ecology?

I have written many posts that examine that question. But here I think it’s helpful to examine that question by looking back on the development of Joseph Ratzinger’s theological and pastoral formation. In doing so, we find clues that make clear why this man spent so much of his pontificate speaking about a new reality for the human race: the destruction of our natural environment.

What follows is a look at a few key elements of his life and education that are important to his ecological pedigree.

...
Feb 9, 2013

Warmer climates, bigger blizzards, more suffering.

It's all about the timing.

On Thursday, my diocesan newspaper ran my column on climate change and what Pope Benedict XVI refers to as “the energy problem” (Caritas in Veritate, §49). In the column, I implore my fellow Catholics—clergy and laity—to heed the science and embrace the moral implications of a warmer climate.

The next day, the Blizzard of 2013 hit Rhode Island. As I write this on the night after the storm, many thousands in my state and many more thousands across New England are without power—and the temperatures tonight will hover around ten degrees Fahrenheit.  

For critics of the science of climate change—most especially non-scientists—this blizzard and bitter cold offer proof against the theories of a warmer globe. Their logic is similar to that of Christianity’s critics, who point to perfectly happy, healthy, wealthy, attractive atheists to demonstrate that one does not need God to live well.

In both cases, people miss the point. And they see only what they wish to see.

Science tells us that  the...

Feb 1, 2013

Reason, faith, service—and lots of energy—at CUA

Photo: Flicker/Chase McAlpine

Brian Alexander knows that the best source of power at the Catholic University of America comes not from the local power utility or even from the school’s array of solar panels—the largest in the Washington, D.C. metro area. Rather, what really powers CUA is its students.

“They keep you young,” Alexander said.

Alexander is CUA’s Director of Energy Environmental Systems. I chatted with him today to learn about the many eco-projects at this significant American Catholic institution. This conversation between engineers quickly showed that the real story here has more to do with soul than with reason—although both are evident in this Catholic university’s quest for sustainable living.

Chiefly in response to a growing awareness of human-induced climate change, the university has installed solar panels on seven buildings throughout the campus. The school has even built parking lot structures to host additional panels (and provide the added benefit of shielding cars from the weather). The solar installations have been the handy work of ...

Jan 21, 2013

Roe v. Wade 40th: Ecologists must first protect life

“Every offense against life, especially at its beginning, inevitably causes irreparable damage to development, peace, and the environment.” Pope Benedict XVI. Message for World Day of Peace. January 1, 2013.

With the fortieth anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the United States must consider the millions who have since been killed. For Catholic Americans, it is a time to voice ever louder the many and terrible ways in which our choices for death affect all things.

Pope Benedict XVI has made clear the connection between abortion and environmental protection, as above in his 2013 Message for World Peace Day, and elsewhere. “Our duties toward the environment are linked to our duties toward the human person,” he famously wrote in 2009 in his third letter to the Church.

The pontiff’s point is simple: Protecting creation begins in the womb. When a culture chooses to abuse or end one form of life—especially vulnerable human life—it can more easily abuse or dismiss the value of all forms of life, and vice versa. And since ecology studies the interconnectivity of life and its physical environment—how impacting one element impacts others—the topic thus becomes a tool to teach the...

Jan 11, 2013

Twelfth-century Cistercian "grateful cooperation"

The voice of a twelfth-century Catholic ecologist comes to us thanks to Dr. Jame Schaefer of Marquette University.

While exchanging emails recently, Dr. Schaefer shared her 2002 paper “Grateful Cooperation: Cistercian Inspiration for Ecosystem Ethics,” from Cistercian Studies Quarterly.

Her paper places into dialogue with the modern world a twelfth-century text that describes the surroundings of the Clairvaux abbey and the activities of the Cistercian monks that inhabited it. This text, written by an unknown author, is titled Descriptio Positionis Seu Situationis Monasterii Claraevallensis.

Dr. Schaefer writes that

[t]he text exudes the unnamed author’s deep appreciation and gratitude for the cooperative interactivity of human beings, other species, the land, water, and air that assured their mutual sustainability and maintained the site’s integrity. This view predates by centuries the efforts of contemporary philosophers to reflect on the human relation to other biota and abiota that constitute ecological systems, to develop ethical principles that can guide human functioning as integral parts of these systems, and to facilitate systematic thinking about sustainable development strategies ...

Dr. Schaefer provides selections of the author’s words as they walk the reader through both the valley and the Clairvaux Abbey.

The river ... passes...

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About the Blog

Catholic Ecology posts my regular column in the Rhode Island Catholic, as well as scientific and theological commentary about the latest eco-news, both within and outside of the Catholic Church. What is contained herein is but one person's attempt to teach and defend the Church's teachings - ecological and otherwise. As such, I offer all contents of this blog for approval of the bishops of the Church. It is my hope that nothing herein will lead anyone astray from truth.