In this post, we will discuss a specific issue in science today, and that is the environment. We will use as a reference point the relatively recent encyclical, Laudato Si (Praise be to you, Lord), by our present Holy Father, Pope Francis, published in 2015.
After reading through the encyclical, I have decided to split discussion of the environment into several parts. I believe there are both beautiful insights, but also some concerns, with the material in this encyclical. I will discuss the positive highlights from Chapters 1-3 in this post, and 4-6 in the next. In the third post, (and maybe a 4th) I will discuss some of the concerns I have with the document. These posts will be very brief, very broad overviews of the document. If you are seriously interested in this subject, I recommend reading the document in its entirety.
First off, the Holy Father quotes Saint John Paul II who said that man often sees, “no other meaning in their natural environment than what serves for immediate use and consumption.” This is one of the themes of the encyclical; there is more to the environment than just it being for our use. The environment reflects the beauty of God. There is a quote in the Catechism, in paragraph 32, from Saint Augustine, which expounds on this point. The Saint says, Question the beauty of the earth, question the beauty of the sea, question the beauty of the air distending and diffusing itself, question the beauty of the sky. . . question all these realities. All respond: "See, we are beautiful." Their beauty is a profession [confessio]. These beauties are subject to change. Who made them if not the Beautiful One [Pulcher] who is not subject to change?” There is an intrinsic value to the environment that goes beyond utilitarian purposes. We must see the beauty of it, and recognize its inherent dignity, that while not on the level of man, nonetheless demands a level of respect from us.
Francis then goes on and quotes his immediate successor, Pope Benedict XVI. Benedict said that when creation is harmed “where we ourselves have the final word, where everything is simply our property and we use it for ourselves alone. The misuse of creation begins when we no longer recognize any higher instance than ourselves, when we see nothing else but ourselves”. Again, Benedict XVI, like John Paul II before him, states the environment is harmed when we think of just humans alone, with no reference to God, or the rest of his creation.
Next up, the Pope quotes his namesake, Saint Francis. One of Francis’ spiritual children, Saint Bonaventure, said that Saint Francis “from a reflection on the primary source of all things, filled with even more abundant piety, he would call creatures, no matter how small, by the name of ‘brother’ or ‘sister’”. This is most reflected in Francis’ Canticle of the Sun in which we find the following lines:
Be praised, my Lord, through all your creatures,
especially through my lord Brother Sun,
who brings the day; and you give light through him.
And he is beautiful and radiant in all his splendor!
Of you, Most High, he bears the likeness.
Praise be You, my Lord, through Sister Moon
and the stars, in heaven you formed them
clear and precious and beautiful.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Wind,
and through the air, cloudy and serene,
and every kind of weather through which
You give sustenance to Your creatures.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Water,
which is very useful and humble and precious and chaste.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Fire,
through whom you light the night and he is beautiful
and playful and robust and strong.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Mother Earth,
who sustains us and governs us and who produces
varied fruits with colored flowers and herbs.
Saint Francis indeed felt a kinship with all of God’s creation, and we should, too.
After speaking of the intrinsic value of the environment beyond a utilitarian use, the Holy Father mentions specific environmental issues we face. He mentions pollution . Some forms of pollution are part of people’s daily experience. Exposure to atmospheric pollutants produces a broad spectrum of health hazards, especially for the poor, and causes millions of premature deaths. People take sick, for example, from breathing high levels of smoke from fuels used in cooking or heating. There is also pollution that affects everyone, caused by transport, industrial fumes, substances which contribute to the acidification of soil and water, fertilizers, insecticides, fungicides, herbicides and agrotoxins in general.. Account must also be taken of the pollution produced by residue, including dangerous waste present in different areas. Each year hundreds of millions of tons of waste are generated, much of it non-biodegradable, highly toxic and radioactive, from homes and businesses, from construction and demolition sites, from clinical, electronic and industrial sources. We can all agree that pollution is something that needs to be controlled for us to live healthy lives.
He then discusses climate, and how it is something we all share a common concern for. The climate is a common good, belonging to all and meant for all. At the global level, it is a complex system linked to many of the essential conditions for human life. He goes on to discuss concerns with the climate in contemporary culture, and we will discuss those in a bit more detail in a future post in this series.
He then discusses the issue of quality drinking water, something I have in fact devoted an entire post to. http://jimscatholicblog.blogspot.com/2017/03/water-repost.html . Fresh drinking water is an issue of primary importance, since it is indispensable for human life and for supporting terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Sources of fresh water are necessary for health care, agriculture and industry…access to safe drinkable water is a basic and universal human right, since it is essential to human survival and, as such, is a condition for the exercise of other human rights. Our world has a grave social debt towards the poor who lack access to drinking water, because they are denied the right to a life consistent with their inalienable dignity. He discusses some of the concerns with its availability, especially among the poor.
The Holy Father then highlights the concerns many have about extinction of certain species, and certain ecosystems like rain forests. Inequality in environmental resources between the rich and the poor are discussed. While he never insists on one type of solution to these matters, he does forcefully condemn population control as a solution, which we did note in our recent series on that topic.
After laying out the environmental situation in the world today, the Holy Father turns to a theological discussion of the creation account. We did discuss the creation account in that aforementioned series, but here, the Holy Father comes at it from a slightly different angle that while not denying that the creation story, and the Bible in general, exalt man above nature, it still demands we respect the environment and its inherent dignity. Paragraph 67 is worth quoting in its entirety. We are not God. The earth was here before us and it has been given to us. This allows us to respond to the charge that Judaeo-Christian thinking, on the basis of the Genesis account which grants man “dominion” over the earth (cf. Gen 1:28), has encouraged the unbridled exploitation of nature by painting him as domineering and destructive by nature. This is not a correct interpretation of the Bible as understood by the Church. Although it is true that we Christians have at times incorrectly interpreted the Scriptures, nowadays we must forcefully reject the notion that our being created in God’s image and given dominion over the earth justifies absolute domination over other creatures. The biblical texts are to be read in their context, with an appropriate hermeneutic, recognizing that they tell us to “till and keep” the garden of the world (cf. Gen 2:15). “Tilling” refers to cultivating, ploughing or working, while “keeping” means caring, protecting, overseeing and preserving. This implies a relationship of mutual responsibility between human beings and nature. Each community can take from the bounty of the earth whatever it needs for subsistence, but it also has the duty to protect the earth and to ensure its fruitfulness for coming generations. “The earth is the Lord’s” (Ps 24:1); to him belongs “the earth with all that is within it” (Dt 10:14). Thus God rejects every claim to absolute ownership: “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with me” (Lev 25:23).
He also speaks of the references to nature in the Psalms, which are prayed everyday by the Church. Again, we will quote a paragraph from the encyclical in its entirety, paragraph 72. The Psalms frequently exhort us to praise God the Creator, “who spread out the earth on the waters, for his steadfast love endures for ever” (Ps 136:6). They also invite other creatures to join us in this praise: “Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars! Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens! Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded and they were created” (Ps 148:3-5). We do not only exist by God’s mighty power; we also live with him and beside him. This is why we adore him.
The Holy Father does speak of a few other areas in the Bible where creation is exalted, but we shall move on to his summary here in paragraph 75: A spirituality which forgets God as all-powerful and Creator is not acceptable. That is how we end up worshipping earthly powers, or ourselves usurping the place of God, even to the point of claiming an unlimited right to trample his creation underfoot. The best way to restore men and women to their rightful place, putting an end to their claim to absolute dominion over the earth, is to speak once more of the figure of a Father who creates and who alone owns the world. Otherwise, human beings will always try to impose their own laws and interests on reality.
Next, the Holy Father discusses the distinction between “creation” and “nature”. He explains: In the Judaeo-Christian tradition, the word “creation” has a broader meaning than “nature”, for it has to do with God’s loving plan in which every creature has its own value and significance. Nature is usually seen as a system which can be studied, understood and controlled, whereas creation can only be understood as a gift from the outstretched hand of the Father of all, and as a reality illuminated by the love which calls us together into universal communion…Judaeo-Christian thought demythologized nature. While continuing to admire its grandeur and immensity, it no longer saw nature as divine. In doing so, it emphasizes all the more our human responsibility for nature. So nature, while a reflection of the divine, is not divine itself. However, we are responsible for it. And while man is superior to all creatures, even angels, he adds, Our insistence that each human being is an image of God should not make us overlook the fact that each creature has its own purpose. None is superfluous. The entire material universe speaks of God’s love, his boundless affection for us. Soil, water, mountains: everything is, as it were, a caress of God. We all have a common bond, and communion, with nature, that needs to be nurtured. This common bond must include the poor and disadvantaged.
The Holy Father finishes his discussion of communion by mentioning that in Jesus, all of creation, including the natural world, is united. First off, Jesus revealed a profound value for the natural world when he said things like “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them” (Mt 6:26). Secondly, he was involved, as the Word of God, in the creation of the world. “All things have been created though him and for him” (Col 1:16). Finally, in the Paschal Mystery, he has united all creation “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross” (Col 1:19-20). Jesus is the source and summit of the communion of all creation, which includes the natural world.
After this discussion of the theology of communion, the Holy Father then goes into a discussion of some things in the world that challenge that ideal. He discusses technology. He admits it has benefits, and has helped scientific progress in many ways. However, he proposes that it often turns man and nature into an object. The masters of technology are subjects who progressively gain control over these objects. Man and nature become subjects of scientific inquiry first and foremost. When one or the other is not needed, it is discarded, and more is sought to consume. This is a technological paradigm that the Holy Father asks us to reconsider. This paradigm leads to misguided thought: that we are the center of the universe, and nature has a merely utilitarian function as a fertile ground for technological growth, convenience takes place over absolutes, man’s employment is threatened as it is deemed worth less because robots and other forms of technology can do the job better than we can, and the inherent dignity and uniqueness of human labor is lost.
The Holy Father then touches on what we did in the first post in this series, and that is human intervention/experimentation on plants and animals. He quotes what I did from the Catechism, and then says adds this: Here I would recall the balanced position of Saint John Paul II, who stressed the benefits of scientific and technological progress as evidence of “the nobility of the human vocation to participate responsibly in God’s creative action”, while also noting that “we cannot interfere in one area of the ecosystem without paying due attention to the consequences of such interference in other areas. He made it clear that the Church values the benefits which result “from the study and applications of molecular biology, supplemented by other disciplines such as genetics, and its technological application in agriculture and industry." But he also pointed out that this should not lead to “indiscriminate genetic manipulation which ignores the negative effects of such interventions. Human creativity cannot be suppressed. If an artist cannot be stopped from using his or her creativity, neither should those who possess particular gifts for the advancement of science and technology be prevented from using their God-given talents for the service of others. We need constantly to rethink the goals, effects, overall context and ethical limits of this human activity, which is a form of power involving considerable risks.. This, then, is the correct framework for any reflection concerning human intervention on plants and animals, which at present includes genetic manipulation by biotechnology for the sake of exploiting the potential present in material reality. The respect owed by faith to reason calls for close attention to what the biological sciences, through research uninfluenced by economic interests, can teach us about biological structures, their possibilities and their mutations. Any legitimate intervention will act on nature only in order “to favour its development in its own line, that of creation, as intended by God." Any intervention in nature should have the development of creation as its ultimate end, not the destruction of it, and again, by creation, that includes both man and nature.
So those are the noteworthy highlights as I see it from Chapters 1-3 of the encyclical. In the next post, we will discuss highlights from Chapters 4-6, and then again afterwards, I will discuss some challenges and opportunities, as I see it, with the encyclical.
Joseph, diligent protector of Christ, pray for us.
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