The Challenge of Climate Change and Environmental Justice: A Distinctive Catholic Contribution
Notre Dame Journal of Law
The C hallenge of Climate Change and Environmental Justice: A Distinctive Catholic Contribution
Thom as G. Wenski 0
Recommended Citation
0 Thom as G. Wenski, Th e Challenge of Climate Change and Environmental Justice: A Distinctive Catholic Contribution , 23 Notre Dame J.L. Ethics & Pub. Pol'y 497 (2009). Available at:
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MOST REVEREND THOMAS G. WENSKI*
Today we face great environmental challenges as a nation and as a
global community. Climate change is at the center of these challenges.
Global climate change has captured the attention of scientists,
environmental leaders, and policy-makers. What may not be well known is that
the Catholic Church and its leaders have addressed the environment and
climate change in distinctive and persistent ways.
The Church seeks to make a genuinely religious and authentically
Catholic contribution to the discussion of environmental questions,
including climate change, by lifting up the moral dimensions of these
issues and the needs of the most vulnerable among us.' This unique
contribution is rooted in our religious and moral teaching and reflects
the Church's pastoral service, especially among the poor and vulnerable
in our country and around the world.2
For us this concern for the environment and duty to care for
creation is not new. It did not begin with Earth Day, but with Genesis itself.
This Catholic perspective applies traditional moral values to new ethical
challenges. As believers and religious leaders our love and appreciation
*
Bishop Thomas G. Wenski was appointed by Pope John Paul II as bishop of the
Diocese of Orlando on July 1, 2003. Bishop Wenski is past chairman of the Committee
on International Justice and Peace of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
He holds a B.A. Degree in Philosophy (1972), a Masters of Divinity from the Boynton
Beach Seminary (1975), and an M.A. from the School of Sociology of Fordham
University in New York (1993).
1. Cecilia V. Calvo, Catholic Social Teaching and Environmental Justice: Faithful
Stewards of God's Creation para. 3
(paper presented at Maryville College for The
Maryville Symposium: Conversations on Faith and the Liberal Arts, Maryville, Tenn., Sept.
25-27, 2008)
(on file with author) [hereinafter Calvo 1].
2. Religious and Moral Dimensions of Global Climate Change: Before the S. Comm.
on Environment and Public Works, 110th Cong. (June 7, 2007), availableat http://www.
usccb.org/sdwp/ejp/climate/June07FinalTestimony.pdf, at 2 (prepared statement of John
L. Carr, Sec'y, Dep't of Soc. Dev. & World Peace, U.S. Conf. of Cath. Bishops)
[hereinafter USCCB Testimony].
for God's gift of creation begins with the belief that "the earth is the
Lord's and all it holds." 3 "Our Creator has given us the gift of creation:
the air we breathe, the water that sustains life, the climate and
environment we share-all of which God created and found 'very good."' 4 As
bishops we believe that our response to global climate change is a sign of
our respect for God the creator and all of God's creation.
In this paper, I will highlight key themes on the environment and
climate change lifted up by the Catholic Church and its leaders,
including Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, and the United States
Catholic bishops. These statements emphasize and exemplify connections
between Catholic faith and environmental stewardship. I will also
present some principles from Catholic social teaching that provide a moral
framework for assessing environmental issues, especially climate change. 6
Finally, I will examine how these moral principles have shaped the
United States bishops' approach to public policy on climate change and
how other members of the Catholic Church are translating this call to
care for God's creation into action.
From the beginning of his papacy, Pope Benedict XVI has
emphasized care for creation and the moral dimensions of the environment. 7
He has been named one of the world's top environmental leaders and
been dubbed the "green pope" for his efforts to focus Church teaching
on humanity's responsibility to care for the planet and for his steps to
make the Vatican City State the world's first carbon-neutral nation.
Under his leadership, in April of 2007 the Vatican convened leaders from
around the world, including a representative from USCCB, at a major
conference on Climate Change and Development.8
Following in the path of Pope John Paul II, Benedict XVI has
devoted a significant part of his recent World Day of Peace Messages to
ecological questions. In his 2008 statement, The Human Family,A
Community of Peace9, he reminds us that the planet is our home, which "has
been given to men and women by God to 'inhabit with creativity and
responsibility' and to protect with 'responsible freedom."' 10
In several statements and documents, John Paul II and Benedict
XVI have applied Catholic social teaching principles to (...truncated)