Pope Francis invites us to a stewardship tradition geared towards saving God’s creation With “Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home,” on his Pontifical shelf, Pope Francis has been walking the talk on care for the environment. While this task appears as one exclusively entrusted to environments, it is a clarion call to not only go green but save all endangered species through a clean and dignified earth. Released in 2015 ahead of the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Paris, which negotiated the Paris Agreement, in that Apostolic Exhortation, the Pope sought to encourage governments to implement the Paris Agreement and the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. To the uninitiated, why should the Church bother about environmental issues when there are zillions of challenges begging for attention? Well, this piece tries to provide a theological and sociological context while offering workable solutions from papal apostolic exhortations.
Care for the earth, biblical basis
Without doubt, care for the earth has biblical roots. Although Theology of the Earth is an emerging study in the theological sciences. Such a teaching has divine roots – take for instance, the Holy Scripture says: “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth” (Gen. 1:28). This charge is both a privilege and a duty. It provides both the latitude and longitude for how far human beings can go in upholding this gift so as not to violate it. More so, it is instructive to note that before the flood, God ordered Noah to take with him seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate (Cf. Gen. 7:2). Accordingly, pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark (Cf. Gen: 7:15). The deal was sealed when God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark by sending a wind over the earth and the waters receded (Cf. Gen. 8:1).
In the New Testament, Jesus gave an ecological lecture when he ordered that 12 baskets of leftovers be picked at the miracle of the five loaves and two fish (Cf. John 6:1- 14). Besides not getting anything wasted, Jesus wanted a clean and green environment. The dictum “Cleanliness is next to godliness” applies here. Eventually, his arrest at the garden of Gethsemane (Cf. Matthew 26:36-56) and his death on the wood of the cross at Calvary connects with the original state of blessedness which Adam and Eve relished urging us to green pastures (Cf. Psalm 23:2) in the hereafter. Far from attributing human characteristics or behaviour to God (anthropomorphism), this benevolent act of God through his servant Noah is a compelling narrative which shows how God places human beings over and above other living and nonliving things for the greater glory of his name. God new that no other being could fulfill this crucial function that was why he “reserved all rights to man” pertaining the created order. Little wonder then, the canon of Holy Mass says, “The creation of man was a wonderful work, his redemption still more wonderful.”
The question is, if human beings needed redemption because they fell from the original state of blessedness and became “fallen humanity” needing restoration, it is only proper for the redeemed to imitate their creator by being coredemptorists in a polluted and convoluted earth begging for survival. As it stands today, everything, of course, including man, requires the magic of divine redemption. The Catechism of the Catholic Church which has biblical foundations states that, “man’s dominion over inanimate and other living beings granted by the Creator is not absolute” (CCC 2415). It also insists that everybody must “respect the particular goodness of every creature, to avoid any disordered use of things which would be in contempt of the Creator and would bring disastrous consequences for human beings and their environment” (CCC 339).
Destruction of the earth, effects
Experts are of the view that nature is threatened due to human exponential growth, disappearance of forest reserves, technology and industry which produces emissions, toxic waste and carbon emissions. According to The World Counts – every year, an estimated 55 billion tons of fossil energy, minerals, metals and bio mass are extracted from the earth. It is scary to also note that the world has already lost 80% of its forests is continually losing them at a rate of 375 km2 per day. What is more, the current rate of deforestation is that 5-10% of tropical forest species will become extinct every 10 years. The data further reveals that every hour, 1,692 acres of productive dry land becomes desert. 27% of our coral reefs have been destroyed. If the rate continues, remaining 60% will be gone in 30 years. We are now using up 50% more natural resources than the earth can provide.
At the current population of the world, we need 1.5 Earths, which we do not have. There is a garbage island floating in the ocean which comprises plastics, the size of India, Europe and Mexico put together. Only recently, the United Nations (UN) made a sterling revelation that “Every year, humans produce 300 million tonnes of plastic waste, including 11 million tonnes that eventually wind up in the ocean.” The disturbing statement further detailed that “By 2050, there could be more plastic than fish in our seas.”
Papal teachings on care for the earth
In 1970, St. Paul VI demonstrated concern for the environment while addressing the United Nations Organization for Food and Agriculture in 1970. The pontiff challenged the world that issues around environmental degradation must be addressed by the whole human family (Apostolic Letter Octogesima adveniens 21). On his part, Pope Benedict XVI saw creation as a gift of God not to be thrown away (Caritas in Veritate #48). He recalls how our salvation story began with creation acknowledging that God’s goodness is manifested in creation. He invites all to develop an attitude of gratitude for the gift of the earth while ensuring it is cared for and conserved according to God’s plan. In an unprecedented manner, John Paul II’s papacy which spanned from 1978 to 2005 envisioned care for God’s creation as a distinctive contribution to both ecology-spirituality in particular and Theology of Nature in general.
For instance, in his 1979 encyclical, Redemptor Hominis, the Bishop of Rome lamented that: “Exploitation of the earth… and the uncontrolled development of technology… often bring with them a threat to man’s natural environment, alienate him in his relations with nature and remove him from nature. Man often seems to see no other meaning in his natural environment than what serves for immediate use and consumption. Yet it was the Creator’s will that man should communicate with nature as an intelligent and noble ‘master’ and ‘guardian,’ and not as a heedless ‘exploiter’ and ‘destroyer'” (Redemptor Hominis 15). Therein, JP II raised the alarm over environmental crisis which inflicts grave damage on mother-earth and alienates human beings from nature leading to an aggressive control including consumerism. While calling for proper attitude towards nature, the Polish Pope points to Jesus as the redeemer who provides the needed grace which transforms hearts and restores fruitfulness. He recalls how God referred to creation of the natural order as “good” (Genesis 1) and St. Paul speaks of nature after the fall of Adam as “groaning in travail” (Romans 8:22) which ultimately “waits with eager longing for the revelation of the sons of God” (Romans 8:19) (Cf. Redemptor Hominis 8). JP II also lived out what he preached as he combined quiet moments of prayer and contemplation with sports like skiing, hiking, kayaking, and camping across the countryside of Poland, his homeland.
In 1979, when he named Francis of Assisi as patron saint of people who promote ecology, he upheld the role of ecologists and environmentalists in the Church as a lofty and profound calling which needs to be appreciated and celebrated. In Centesimus Annus (“the Hundredth Year”), the encyclical which marked the 100th anniversary of the tradition of modern Catholic Social Teaching inaugurated by Pope Leo XIII in 1891, JP II observes that: “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” (Centesimus Annus 37). The saintly Pope also decried that, “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… 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” (Centesimus Annus 37). He surmises that because human beings are different from other created beings, their rational and spiritual powers provide them with a greater responsibility towards care and nurture of the earth. In Laudato Si’ Pope Francis insists that “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” (LS 75).
Going green, lessons from Laudato Si’ First, human beings everywhere must look up to God as the father and custodian of the earth who would hold everyone responsible for the use or misuse of the environment. Little wonder, Pope Francis maintained that “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” (LS 75). Second, Francis invites us to a stewardship tradition geared towards saving God’s creation. Indeed, this requires a global response to environmental needs. It is not surprising that, in a swift hashtag #SaveOurOcean campaign, the UN insisted, “We all have a role to play to even amid COVID-19 and other crises: refuse plastic cutlery and straws, use refillable water bottles, and bring your own coffee cups and shopping bags.” Second, “Social problems must be addressed by community networks and not simply by the sum of individual good deeds – The ecological conversion needed to bring about lasting change is also a community conversion” (LS 219).
Third, healing nature/creation requires global synergy. This is why, Francis opines that developing a new relationship with nature: “entails a loving awareness that we are not disconnected from the rest of creatures, but joined in a splendid universal communion. As believers, we do not look at the world from without but from within, conscious of the bonds with which the Father has linked us to all beings” (LS 220).
Conclusion
The Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development which introduced the Laudato Si’ Action Platform expects families, parishes and dioceses, schools and universities, businesses and farms, religious congregations, and hospitals and other health care facilities to adopt renewable energy, achieve carbon neutrality; defend all life and show solidarity with indigenous peoples and vulnerable groups. By the same token, they desire that everyone adopts a simpler lifestyle, foster ecological education and spirituality, advocate for sustainable development and follow ethical investment guidelines, including divestment from fossil fuels and other industries that harm the planet. That way, “more plastic than fish” would be left in the ocean for unborn generations. However, that can only come about if we all re-take lessons from Francis’ uncanny encyclical letter, Laudato Si.’
• Rev. Fr. Justine John Dyikuk, a Catholic Priest, is a Lecturer of Mass Communication, University of Jos; Editor, Caritas Newspaper and convener, Media Team Network Initiative, Nigeria. He can be reached via: justinejohndyikuk@ gmail.com.
