World Environment Day

By Father Sean McDonagh SSC

Every year on 5 June the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) organizes World Environment Day, www.unep.org/wed/2006/english . This is an opportunity for everyone, especially Catholics, to thank God for the beauty and bounty of creation and to reflect on what is happening to God’s creation both globally and in their own parish and diocese. In the wake of the death and funeral of Pope John Paul II last year many commentators reflected on how he promoted social justice and human rights in different parts of the world. Few alluded to his teaching on the environment. True, the environment was not at the top of his agenda but he did have insightful things to say which have been totally overlooked.

Simplicity, moderation and discipline

In Peace with God the Creator, Peace with all Creation, which he published on 1 January 1990 he wrote: Christians, in particular, know that their responsibility within creation and their duty towards God and the Creator are an essential part of their faith. (No 15). In the same document he suggested that modern society will find no solution to the ecological problems unless it takes a serious look at its lifestyle. He believed that simplicity, moderation and discipline, as well as a spirit of sacrifice, must become part of everyday life, lest all suffer the negative consequence of the careless habits of a few.

On 17 January 2001 at a general audience his environmental critique was much more forthright and ominous: Unfortunately, if we scan the regions of our planet, we immediately see that humanity has disappointed God's expectations. Man, especially in our time, has without hesitation devastated wooded plains and valleys, polluted waters, disfigured the earth's habitat, made the air unbreathable, disturbed the hydrogeological and atmospheric systems, turned luxuriant areas into deserts and undertaken forms of unrestrained industrialization, degrading that ‘flowerbed’ - to use an image from Dante Alighieri - which is the earth, our dwelling-place. We must therefore encourage and support the ‘ecological conversion’ which in recent decades has made humanity more sensitive to the catastrophe to which it has been heading.

Unfortunately, this call to conversion has, for the most part, fallen on deaf ears, because people in vital positions in politics, economics, the media and religion regularly fail to assess the ecological impact of their activities.

One might even be tempted to dismiss this speech as having more to do with apocalyptic religious language that with science but for the fact that it is substantiated by the recent Millennium Ecosystem Report which was published just before the Pope died. The study contains what the authors call ‘a stark warning’ for everyone in the world. They write: human activity is putting such a strain on the natural functions of the Earth that the ability of the planet’s ecosystems to sustain future generations (of humans) can no longer be taken for granted.

The Report carries huge weight. It was collated under the direction of Robert Watson, the British-born chief scientist at the World Bank with the aid of over 1,300 scientists from almost 100 countries. It chronicles how rapidly humankind is devastating vital ecosystems like tropical forests, coral reefs and crop lands. It adds its voice to numerous other scientific studies regarding the destructive impact of climate change on humans and many other species on the planet. It tells us that water withdrawals from rivers and lakes has doubled in the past 40 years so that today humans now use between 40 percent and 50 percent of all available freshwater running off the land. At least one quarter of all fish stocks are over-harvested and today, in some areas, fish catches are merely one hundredth of what they were before the advent of industrial fishing. It tells us that we are causing the extinction of a significant section of the web of life.

Education, action and prayer

For Christian communities the call to ‘ecological conversion’ has three dimensions – education, action and prayer. We need to educate ourselves about ecological issues locally and globally. Because so few mainline theological institutes in Ireland teach ecological theology, four years ago we at St Columban’s,Dalgan Park, Navan, decided to set up a part-time, MA in Ecology and Religion in cooperation with theUniversity of Wales. Parish teams might ask themselves how central ecological education is in the schools, sermons and other catechetical material.

Many helpful ideas can be found on www.christian-ecology.org.uk , the website of Christian Ecology Link. Action in the parish might focus on waste, water, energy. Are we promoting recycling? Is energy efficiency a priority for the parish community? Every time we use water do we remember that it is a gift from God and should be used in a caring, reverential way? Does God’s creation have a central place in our prayer life?

St Columban, the 6th century Irish Missionary to Europe, wrote: If you wish to know about God, learn about creation. Are environmental concerns reflected in our prayers of the faithful at Mass each Sunday? Do we constantly thank God for the beauty and bounty of nature?

I will end this reflection with a prayer from St Basil the Great (c 330-379): O God, enlarge within us the sense of fellowship with all living things, our brothers and sisters, the animals, to whom you gave the earth as their home in common with us. We remember with shame that in the past we have exercised the high dominion of man with ruthless cruelty, so that the voice of the earth, which should have gone up to you in song, has been a groan of travail. May we realize that they live, not for us alone, but for themselves and for You and that they love the sweetness of life.

This article is reprinted here with permission. It was originally published in Intercom, June 2005, a liturgical and pastoral resource published by Veritas, Dublin, Ireland, an agency of the Irish Bishops' Conference.