By J. Milburn Thompson
Reprinted With permission from
 “The American Catholic”

Pope Benedict XVI is being called "the Green Pope" and rightly so. Not only has he spoken out about Christian responsibility to care for the environment, but in this case the Vatican's example may be more effective than its statements. I want to suggest, however, that there is room for improvement, both in word and deed.
Recent statements by Pope Benedict have contributed to the development of a distinctively Catholic voice on the environment.

Pope Benedict expands on the principles of Catholic social teaching in developing his environmental ethic in his 2009 social encyclical, "Charity in Truth" (#48-51), and his 2010 World Day of Peace Message, "If You Want to Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation."

The foundation of the church's contemporary environmental ethic is that creation is a gift of God entrusted to humanity to take care of and cultivate. Human beings, created in God's image, are seen as co-creators with God and as stewards of Earth and its resources.

Thus the church's environmental ethic is clearly and consciously human-centered or anthropocentric.
Pope Benedict steers a middle course between the extremes of an Earth-centered approach (biocentrism or ecocentrism espoused by deep ecologists and others) and the total human domination of the earth, which has characterized the Christian West. He takes a "stewardship" approach.

Pope Benedict develops the church's environmental ethic by drawing on and expanding the principles that form the core of Catholic social teaching. He extends to future generations the principles of integral human development, the option for the poor, the universal destiny of created goods and the common good. He includes a healthy environment in what the American church has called the consistent ethic of life. Like Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict expands human rights to include a right to a healthy environment.

An Environmental Ethic

The church calls both for a change in lifestyle and for structural change. The greed, selfishness and exploitation of a consumerist mentality have resulted in environmental and economic crises and in human suffering and inequity; simplicity, sacrifice and justice are the ways forward. An environmental ethic of human stewardship for the natural world is theologically defensible and environmentally helpful.

Genesis is clear that God created the world and remains in charge of it. The "dominion" given to human beings can persuasively be understood in terms of responsibility rather than authority. Humans are to care for and cultivate the earth so that the human community can flourish. Wise environmental practices are in the enlightened self-interest of humanity.

A stewardship ethic can justify and motivate important changes in human behavior and significant social transformations. The church has made great strides in its attitude toward nature. It has gone from an attitude of disregard and domination to an ethic of responsible stewardship and care for creation. Many commentators, however, think that the church needs to go a step further in the development of the conceptual foundation for its ecological theology.

An anthropocentric ethic does not logically give intrinsic value to the earth or to other creatures. Nature has only the instrumental value of being used for and by humanity. What difference does this make? One of the issues Pope Benedict lists as part of the environmental crisis is the loss of biodiversity-the depletion of species of plants, insects and animals. Species become endangered or extinct when their habitats are altered or destroyed through, for example, human encroachment or global warming.

Species naturally come and go, but human activity is accelerating the pace of extinctions at a rate thousands of times faster than the natural pace of evolution. This reduction of the genetic heritage of Earth may well be harming human interests (perhaps the cure for cancer has vanished in the Amazon forest), but it may also be true that humans can flourish without the polar bear or the spotted owl or the timber rattlesnake. Unless flora and fauna are seen as fellows and the web of life is valued in itself, humanity has little incentive to protect them.

Moreover, this anthropocentric view does not account adequately for the whole scientific or theological truth. Scientifically, humans are not so much above nature as part of nature, derivative from it and dependent on it. The human species has become prolific and powerful, but humans were not present for most of the earth's 4.6 billion years, and should humanity go the way of the dinosaurs, the earth will continue on for some time.
Humans are more dependent on the earth than the earth is on humans. Human consciousness gives humanity a special role and responsibility in the web of life, but it is not only about us.Theology reinforces this case for human humility and interdependence in regard to nature. Scripture is neither anthropocentric nor ecocentic, but theocentric. Thus many theologians have moved toward a Franciscan creation-centered view, what theologian John Hart calls a creatiocentric consciousness.

The focus on creation acknowledges that God created the universe that all of creation is "very good," and that humans are in relationship with God, each other and all of creation.  St. Francis of Assisi realized the kinship that characterizes the web of life. Thus he treated all of creation – sun and wind, birds and wolves, lepers and popes-as companions, as a Thou, not an It. Francis provides a model for a creation-centered rethinking of the human-nature relationship.

A creation-centered approach gives the world a sacred quality that can be perceived by a sacramental vision, and it puts nature and humanity in relationship with each other. A creatiocentric consciousness does not yield easy answers, but it does change the nature of the questions and of the conversation. It would be a more fruitful foundation for the church's environmental ethic.

Beyond what he has been saying, however, Pope Benedict has been setting a good example in Vatican City. Through the installation of solar panels on the football field-sized roof of the Paul VI Audience Hall, plans to plant trees to create a forest in Hungary to offset carbon dioxide emissions and other green measures, Vatican City has become the first carbon neutral state in the world. Admittedly Vatican City is also the world's smallest independent state at 0.17 square mile, but this effort demonstrates a willingness of the church to practice what it preaches regarding the environment.

There are numerous other efforts on the part of Catholic institutions throughout the world to go green. Three lay Catholics have proposed that the American Catholic Church could take a dramatic step that would have a decided impact on global warming.Joshua Pearce, Anna Santini and Jennifer DeSilva suggest that the church should commit to putting photovoltaic cells on the roofs of its 20,000 churches (Worldviews 13 (2009), pp. 92-118). The church's bulk buying of so many solar panels would be the economic stimulus necessary for lowering their cost and making them economically cost effective. Thus the church could be a catalyst for the move from fossil fuels to non-polluting solar energy. The energy savings for U.S. Catholic parishes would be a side benefit. Perhaps other churches and religious institutions would join this cause.

The authors argue that the United States, with 5 percent of the world's population using 25 percent of the world's energy, has a special responsibility and the economic resources to make this sacrifice. They are also quite aware of the positive public relations consequences of such a commitment for a church that has suffered from the bad publicity of the pedophile priest crisis. The enactment of such a plan would set a good example indeed.

Pope Benedict XVI has earned the title "the Green Pope" through word and deed. The stewardship ethic he promotes, while a vast improvement on the domination of nature that has characterized Christian history, might be strengthened through the adoption of a creation-centered vision. The exemplary efforts by the Vatican and Catholic institutions the world over might be given a significant boost by a commitment to solar energy on the part of the U.S. Catholic Church.

With a stronger foundation for its environmental ethic and more radical actions on behalf of the environment, the Catholic Church can exercise leadership toward the greening of church and society.
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