CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING THEME 7 - CARE FOR GOD’S CREATION

 

“We show our respect for the Creator by our stewardship of creation. Care 25:1-7) the earth is not just an Earth Day slogan, it is a requirement of our faith. We are called to protect people and the planet, living our faith in relationship with all of God’s creation. This environment challenge has fundamental moral and ethical dimensions that cannot be ignore.” (USCCB) 

“The land itself must be given a rest and not abused” (Lev. 25:1-7) 

In today’s political and economic discourse, we often see a divide between care for the earth and economic growth. Care for the environment, especially the reduction of our dependence on fossil fuels, is seen as harmful to our economy. Regulations aimed at cleaning the waters, air, and land are deemed harmful to industries and an unnecessary intrusion on commerce. As Christians, we are called to care for the earth that God has created for us. God has given us dominion over the earth but that dominion must be seen as stewardship, not exploitation. Often, it’s the rich nations that exploit the developing nations’ natural resources for their own gain, thus moving exploitation of the earth into abuse of our poorer brothers and sisters. “A true ecological approach always becomes a social approach; it must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor. . . . Everything is connected. Concern for the environment thus needs to be joined to a sincere love for our fellow human beings and an unwavering commitment to resolving the problems of society.” (Pope Francis, On Care for Our Common Home [Laudato Si']). 

As steward’s of God’s creation, we are responsible for leaving our future generations a livable environment. The dangers of that not happening grow with each passing year that we do little to curb climate change. The dependence on fossil fuels and the destruction of air cleaning rain forests threatens not only our way of life but also our very existence. This is a clear violation of our call to “care for God’s creation.”  In addition to not fully addressing climate change, our neglect of our drinking water and the air we breathe further erodes the health of the world we will leave our grandchildren. Our need for economic growth and consumption of more and more material goods must not allow us to abandon duty to preserve the gift of God’s creation. 

“Equally worrying is the  ecological question which accompanies the problem of consumerism and which  is closely connected to it. 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. . . . 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.” (St. John Paul II,  Centesimus Annus)

SOLIDARITY - Theme 6 – Social Teaching of the Catholic Church

 “If one member of Christ’s body suffers, all suffer. If one member is honored, all rejoice.” (1Corinthians 12:12-26)

 

“We are one human family whatever our national, racial, ethnic, economic, and ideological differences. We are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers, wherever they may be. Loving our neighbor has global dimensions in a shrinking world. At the core of the virtue of solidarity is the pursuit of justice and peace. Pope Paul VI taught that ‘if you want peace, work for justice.’ The Gospel calls us to be peacemakers. Our love for all our sisters and brothers demands that we promote peace in a world surrounded by violence and conflict.” (USCCB)

 

The present notion of “America First” can be seen as a violation of the virtue of solidarity, just as the notion of “taking care of number one” is. We are not individuals living isolated from others, no matter how removed they may be. The “me first” concept, whether as an individual or as a nation, rejects the call of Scripture to become our brother’s and sister’s keeper, or helper in need.

 

This virtue of solidarity requires of us a conscious effort to recognize how my actions and my decisions affect others, even those who live across the globe. The work for justice for all is not only our calling but it is also a way of working for justice for each of us. As Martin Luther King said in 1963: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” Understanding how our economy in the United States affects developing countries across the world is part of our call to solidarity. From the person in my neighborhood or parish who lacks enough food for today, the person of color in the next town over who feels the bite of racism, the persons who feel alienated from others because of a different belief system, to the person struggling under brutal living conditions from oppressive governments in a far part of the world; these all are my brothers and sisters and when they suffer I suffer also. When they rejoice, I rejoice.

 

“Developing countries, where the most important reserves of the biosphere are found, continue to fuel the development of richer countries at the cost of their own present and future. The land of the southern poor is rich and mostly unpolluted, yet access to ownership of goods and resources for meeting vital needs is inhibited by a system of commercial relations and ownership which is structurally perverse…As the United States bishops have said, greater attention must be given to ‘the needs of the poor, the weak and the vulnerable, in a debate often dominated by more powerful interests.’ We need to strengthen the conviction that we are one single family. There is no frontiers or barriers, political or social, behind which we can hide, still less is there room for the globalization of indifference.” (Pope Francis, ‘Lautato Si’.)

THE DIGNITY OF WORK AND RIGHTS OF WORKERS

“The economy must serve people, not the other way around. Work is more than a way to make a living; it is a form of continuing participation in God’s creation. If dignity of work is to be protected, then the basic rights of workers must be respected – the right to productive work, to decent and fair wages, to the organization and joining of unions, to private property, and to economic initiative.” (USCCB)

 

“Those who become rich by abusing their workers have sinned against God.” (James 5:1-6)

 

Labor is not just a way to earn money, to receive a paycheck. Labor itself is valuable and dignified. Since the beginning of time people have worked to provide for their families and to build self-esteem for themselves. “Work is a good thing for man-a good thing for his humanity- because through work man not only transforms nature, adapting it to his own needs, but he also achieves fulfillment as a human being and indeed, in a sense, becomes ‘more a human being.’” (St. John Paul II, “On Human Work”) Labor, therefore must be not only treated with dignity, and the laborer the same, but must be employed in such a way that both the worker and the work must be seen as having great value unrelated to profit. There are no jobs, therefore, that are undignified by nature. All human labor that is not sinful and is consistent with building a better society is inherently dignified and must be treated with respect.

 

The rights the USCCB enumerated above are not nice things that we should strive for but are essential to the basic dignity of all workers and of human life itself. Work, therefore, must be productive and the worker must “work out of regard for others, especially his own family, but also for the society he belongs to.” (JPII) Workers also must see themselves as important members of a team and not just commodities to be exploited. This assumes the worker will receive a living wage along with opportunities for associations to ensure these rights and opportunities are protected, as well as opportunities for creating a more respectful work environment. This necessarily includes adequate health insurance and the availability of any medical attention required for the safety and well-being of each person.

 

“As the Church solemnly reaffirmed in the recent Council, ‘the beginning, the subject and the goal of all social institutions is and must be the human person.’ All people have the right to work, to a chance to develop their qualities and their personalities in the exercise of their professions, to equitable remuneration which will enable them and their families ‘to lead a worthy life on the material, social, cultural and spiritual level’ and to assistance in case of need arising from sickness or age.” (Pope Paul VI Octogesima Adveniens)

OPTION FOR THE POOR AND VULNERABLE

 

“You shall not oppress the poor or vulnerable. God will hear their cry.” (Exodus 22:20-26)

“How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees one in need and refuses to help?” (1 John 3:17-18)

 

“A basic moral test is how our most vulnerable members are faring. In a society marred by deepening divisions between rich and poor, our tradition recalls the story of the Last Judgment (Matthew 25:31-46) and instructs us t put the needs of the poor and vulnerable first.” USCCB

 

The preferential option for the poor and vulnerable is steeped in the Tradition of the Catholic Church and the Gospels. This option is not meant to create and adversarial situation between the poor and the rich but rather calls to mind the admonition in the Sacred Scriptures that “True worship is to work for justice and care for the poor and oppressed.” ( Isaiah 58:5-7) The option for the poor calls us to take care of their needs and see that our way of life does not cause theirs to suffer in any way.

 

"The Church's love for the poor . . . is a part of her constant tradition." This love is inspired by the Gospel of the Beatitudes, of the poverty of Jesus, and of his concern for the poor. . . . "Those who are oppressed by poverty are the object of a preferential love on the part of the Church which, since her origin and in spite of the failings of many of her members, has not ceased to work for their relief, defense, and liberation." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 2444, 2448, quoting Centisimus annus, no. 57, and Libertatis conscientia, no. 68) 

 

The option for the poor means that their needs must come first. We have an obligation to notice the poor and vulnerable and respond to their needs using not just our surplus wealth but even our very sustenance. “The needs of the poor take priority over the desires of the rich; the rights of workers over the maximization of profits; the preservation of the environment over uncontrolled industrial expansion; the production to meet social needs over production for military purposes.” (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Economic Justice for All, no. 94)

 

The bottom line is that we possess nothing ourselves that is to be held back from those who are in need. We are, in fact, stewards of the material wealth we are fortunate enough to possess. We are called by our discipleship with Christ to share what we have with others, to give them their due of what we have accumulated. “Faced with a world today where so many people are suffering from want, the council asks individuals and governments to remember the saying of the Fathers:  ‘Feed the people dying of hunger, because if you do not feed them you are killing them,’ and it urges them according to their ability to share and  dispose of their goods to help others, above all by giving them aid which will  enable them to help and develop themselves. (Second Vatican Council, The Church in the Modern World [Gaudium et Spes], no. 69)