Creation Care
Without confronting the moral status of the transnational corporations which are currently destroying our planet’s ecological balance, no proposal can outrun the onrushing ecological catastrophe. As Catholics, we have a powerful moral basis for taking the necessary action in the Catechism and the teachings of the Fathers. This necessary action must include expropriating natural and other resources from those corporations that are currently misusing them to degrade the creation upon which we all depend for life.
The moral foundation for what needs to be done is known as the "universal destination of material goods." St. Ambrose, mentor to St. Augustine, stated, "God has ordered all things to be produced so that there should be food in common for all, and that the earth should be the common possession of all. Nature, therefore, has produced a common right for all, but greed has made it a right for few." (St. Ambrose, Duties of the Clergy, 1. 132). The implications of this teaching as echoed in the most recent Catholic Catechism are very rich: "In the beginning God entrusted the earth and its resources to the common stewardship of mankind to take care of them, master them by labor, and enjoy their fruits. The goods of creation are destined for the whole human race ... The right to private property, acquired by work or received from others by inheritance or gift, does not do away with the original gift of the earth to the whole of mankind. The universal destination of goods remains primordial, even if the promotion of the common good requires respect for the right to private property and its exercise ... The ownership of any property makes its holder a steward of Providence, with the task of making it fruitful and communicating its benefits to others, first of all his family. Goods of production - material or immaterial - such as land, factories, practical or artistic skills, oblige their possessors to employ them in ways that will benefit the greatest number ... Political authority has the right and duty to regulate the legitimate exercise of the right to ownership for the sake of the common good." Catechism of the Catholic Church 2403 – 2405.
Property rights, far from being absolute, or the "guarantee of freedom" as globalized groupthink pretends, are subject to more primal concerns. Among these is the common ownership of Earth’s resources such that all receive a just share of its goods and that matters of common concern such as the survival of our species should be addressed communally. In other words, each of us belong to a social organism and have responsibilities beyond our individual desires or corporate interests. This responsibility cannot be evaded by legislation. In fact, it could be argued that our current notions of absolute individual and corporate property rights are a moral fiction produced by the ecological exploitation that has led to the current catastrophe.
Though energy corporations are raking in profits at historically unprecedented levels while the planet burns, they will no doubt argue that the 7th commandment would forbid any major public redirection of those funds. A close reading of the section of the Catechism which explicates that commandment reveals a much different set of moral imperatives.
"The seventh commandment enjoins respect for the integrity of creation ... Use of the mineral, vegetable, and animal resources of the universe cannot be divorced from respect for moral imperatives. Man's dominion over inanimate and other living beings granted by the Creator is not absolute; it is limited by concern for the quality of life of his neighbor, including generations to come; it requires a religious respect for the integrity of creation." Catechism 2415. The 7th commandment cuts in two directions. On the one hand, and the only hand considered by corporate interests, it protects legitimate property rights. On the other hand, it reveals larger moral imperatives than simply the protection of property. Actions which violate the integrity of creation to such a degree that the survival of those who depend on the damaged ecological balance is threatened summons another order of moral accounting.
According to this rule, those who are degrading the environment for the sake of private profit are violating the 7th commandment in a far more vicious way than those who would restore balance by expropriating their ill-gotten gains. They are stealing the life and property of millions who are alive today or will shortly be born along the coastlines of the major cities which will soon be inundated by the effects of global warming. This is stealing in a much deeper and more relevant sense than the legalistic interpretations which protect the right to destroy the "quality of life of his neighbor."
The right to pollute and degrade God’s creation cannot be bought and sold, nor can legislation make it moral. If you want proof, look at the next rainbow you see, and remember the words of Genesis, "This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all mortal creatures that are on earth." Gen. 9: 9-10. Those who violate that covenant and inflict grave injustice on their neighbors make themselves unworthy of the property rights that they prize above creation itself.
Boyd R. Collins, Pax Christi
Boyd R. Collins, Pax Christi member
Recent economic events are an profound confirmation of the truth of traditional Catholic teachings and an equally profound refutation of the "spirit of capitalism" school of Catholic theology. The spirit of Catholic economics as declared above by St. Ambrose makes it blazingly obvious that the corporatist/consumerist economic model promotes exactly those economic vices that the Church condemns. An illustration from the recent financial debacle may clinch the point. The Catechism tells us: "The following are also morally illicit: speculation in which one contrives to manipulate the price of goods artificially in order to gain an advantage to the detriment of others; corruption in which one influences the judgment of those who must make decisions according to law; appropriation and use for private purposes of the common goods of an enterprise; work poorly done; tax evasion; forgery of checks and invoices; excessive expenses and waste." Catechism 2409. Though all of these apply to the current culprits of uninhibited neoliberal practice, the most pertinent one for the most massive transfer of wealth in U.S. history is "appropriation and use for private purposes of the common goods of an enterprise", the "enterprise" in this case being the United States of America. AIG, Merrill Lynch, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bear Stearns, and those yet to come, have all pleaded to those in charge of the public treasury to absolve them of the consequences of their greed. And corrupt officials have gladly agreed.
What is blatantly obvious, though few in the Church seem willing to state it openly, is that the current economic system, far from creating the conditions for virtuous action, promotes and rewards precisely those economic vices that the Church explicitly condemns. In fact, we have been systematically blinded to the consequences of neoliberal economic practice by a system of corporate propaganda that has rarely been challenged from American pulpits. Instead, the Church has been glad to share in the bounty of these practices as long as they were successful.
We Catholics in the pews must have the courage to repent our own endorsement of corporate neoliberalism first, then we must demand that Church leadership condemn these immoral practices with the vigor of John Paul II who wrote in Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, "It is above all a question of interdependence, sensed as a system determining relationships in the contemporary world, in its economic, cultural, political and religious elements, and accepted as a moral category. When interdependence becomes recognized in this way, the correlative response as a moral and social attitude, as a 'virtue,' is solidarity. This then is not a feeling of vague compassion or shallow distress at the misfortunes of so many people, both near and far. On the contrary, it is a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good; that is to say to the good of all and of each individual, because we are all really responsible for all. This determination is based on the solid conviction that what is hindering full development is that desire for profit and that thirst for power already mentioned. These attitudes and 'structures of sin' are only conquered - presupposing the help of divine grace - by a diametrically opposed attitude: a commitment to the good of one's neighbor with the readiness, in the gospel sense, to 'lose oneself' for the sake of the other instead of exploiting him, and to "serve him" instead of oppressing him for one's own advantage."
The virtue of solidarity is precisely what our economic system despises. While we Catholics are treated to endless discourses filled with "shallow distress at the misfortunes of so many people", the solid convictions of the Church which condemn neoliberalism are never mentioned. Again, the recent bailouts are heart-wrenching examples of the diametric opposite. Rather than committing to the common good, the goods of the vast majority are being decimated (quite literally) in order to promote the good of a tiny wealthy minority.
If you would like to contribute to a discussion of Christian economic issues, I encourage you to visit the Nonviolent Jesus at http://nonviolentjesus.blogspot.com where issues of war, peace, and economic justice are debated with an eye to fundamental Christian teachings.
What is sad, inauthentic and
What is sad, inauthentic and even "anti-Christ" is that Christian Churches, including ours, has bought in to the corporate consumerist model of dominion and exploitation. Failure of faith, of Covenant, must be addressed, confessed, repented and corrected. In this matter, we, the faithful need to confront ouselves and our churches.
I do not think I am off-base in observing that perhaps most religious houses (Orders) invest heavily in Wall Street Market games, all of which capitalize on consumerist market presumptions; which tells me that the institutional Church is massively invested in mercantilism, what roots back to the de Medici House of Merchants/ Bankers and the imprint on the papacy and Church that the House of de Medici has made, vis-a-vis, "secularizing" the Church in unseemly and unchristian ways.
Today's global economic/ ecologic predicaments are profoundly telling, indeed. "Trust", in the Christian perspective isn't a game of smoke and mirrors. Church is afforded today a new opportunity of examining its conscience.
Watching the oil,
Watching the oil, gas,monetary, housing, financial institution scandals it is as if the 'barons' are reaping the final harvests from the fading planet. Like the spanish conquistadores in Mexico and Central America, as disease spread and cultures crumbled (largely because of their actions),skimming the last of the valuables, the resources that can be ravaged for personal profit "while the goin's good". (Memories of Iraq?).
So what, the British did it in their empire; the French were able competitors. (Memories of Iraq?)
But is it the same? No, as bad as it was; then there was no end in sight, no ultimate demise of the larger world, just that little corner. (Memories of Iraq?)
The fishing fleets, the oil drills and spills, the endless drainage of our shit into the oceans are killing that world, for profit. (Memories of Iraq!)
Yes, now - memories of Iraq. Rape, ravage, pillage, conquor and self aggrandizement are the stuff of history, of man's journey through time. But always, always, with the snicker, with the sense that the scene is but one 'playing (killing)field' in the great league of leagues that is life.
We know now that there is only one playing field, one earth, one history, one human race. We know now that it is the culture of the race, of life itself, of the planet that is at stake. The barons are still raping, pillaging. The tentacles of AIG reach around the globe though its heart beats in NYC. They are but one, from one core but there are others from other centres creeping into our nests, sucking our blood too. The barons rape and pillage in the one big 'playing field' but we pay the price.
So what that the ice fields crumble into the sea, it's only water; aint 50 more years of gas (till its all gone) great; the seas will only rise three feet not six in the next century you fatalistic scare mongerers; Ike and Katrina and, and... are just blips, not a pattern...right! "Reclaiming the wetlands" is "good business" for real estate development, not creating a path for the other destruction to find its way ashore, whisteling through the oil rigs and chemical plants. Just build higher sea-walls, that all. Al Gore is just bitter that he lost and 95 percent of the best scientists in the world are lying.
We have been warned and warned and....We are Iraq... tranquilized.
And we let them do it.