Why should Catholics become ecologists?

Vanessa Prieto Sandoval
Nov 8 · 3 min read

Recently, since I became a researcher on sustainability and circular economy, I found that some ecologists and research colleagues judge the Catholic religion due to its sociological anthropocentric vision of the world. I realized that some academics even consider the inclusion of the Laudato Si encyclical as a “subjective” academic reference because it may not “look good” in a scientific publication. These kinds of comments make me take a serious position about the importance of the contributions of “Laudato Si” and ask myself about the role of Catholics in the current linear and exploitative system. Are we such evil people? It is contradictory to my personal experience because when I think about how my parents and school teach me religion, I remember parents that love nature and understand its beauty. I even went to a Catholic school, and I had a subject named “Ecology,” and their motto is “Truth, virtue and science,” which is far from an obscurantist vision.

So, first, I started by taking a short course about the encyclical “Laudato Sí.” After studying it more in-depth, I realized that the anthropocentric vision is a misunderstanding of God’s message, summed to our ego and feeling of superiority. After satisfied my curiosity, I gave up the search for that topic because the doctorate program gave many issues to solve, such as papers and the thesis.

One day, while I was explaining the importance of “Laudato Sí” as an ecological manifestation of a cultural, politic, and religious leader, as Gandhi, when he recognized that India should deploy many planets to achieve the same United Kingdom development. At that moment, a student who was about 55 years old or close to my father’s age, asked me, “I do not understand why Pope Francis cares about the environment or why environmental damage could be a sin or offense.” At that moment, I didn’t have an answer prepared. Still, I tried to find the logic in my speech so I answered: “Well, If you damage the environment you would probably kill people and animals, and even if you are not Catholic, killing people is wrong in any culture or country and you can go to jail according to the law”. That was logical for him and the other students, but I knew that those kinds of questions would arrive again if I continue explaining “Laudato Sí” as part of the introduction to my class.

Since then, I have been studying the document, which made me understand that Pope Francis is trying to remind us that God has entrusted the world to us, and that does not mean we are the owners. In fact, Margaret Thatcher said, “No generation has a freehold on this earth. All we have is a life tenancy”. It is like a leasing contract. Two radically different people with incredibly similar ideas about the world…In fact, some sustainable business models are focused on changing the ownership by paying for the goods performance, which is called product system service.

I always introduce this idea by asking people how long they expect to live; some people are very optimistic, and they expect to live more than 90 years and two of the youngest answered that they would live until they were 50, which is a little bit scary for me! In the end, we won´t live forever, and we won´t die with our belongings such as houses, farms, etc. So we own nothing? I’m still thinking about that.

Then, life is also a gift, and we, as Catholics, should think that it is a divine gift, paradise… Therefore, the systematic destruction of nature is a way to reject or even destroy that gift. Furthermore, the planet does not need us; it would flourish without us. So, what could we do to deserve this beautiful and amazing gift? Nature! If we are logical people or real Catholics, we must recognize the luck we have to be on this planet and become informed environmentalists who value, from the heart, the gift of life on earth. I want to highlight that an informed speaker works with facts and data by answering any questions or addressing doubts with reliable information instead of Facebook posts or tweets.

Society Concerns

The complexity of current society and challenges make me propose some arguments about ethics, religion, ecology, gender, etc.…

Vanessa Prieto Sandoval

Written by

PhD in Circular Economy and lecturer

Society Concerns

The complexity of current society and challenges make me propose some arguments about ethics, religion, ecology, gender, etc.…

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