Editorial: Why Does Catholic Online have a 'Green Channel' - and other Questions?

The Catholic Church has been green for a lot longer than any modern environmental movement

The Catholic Church has been green for a lot longer than any modern environmental movement. We want to present a Catholic vision for a relational environmentalism; one of stewardship with the earth which God has made and entrusted to us to care for and share. Some in the current "green" movement have clearly lost their way. We need a new way of being green, a Catholic way. It's really a very ancient way. It starts with the truth, creation is a gift.

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CHESAPEAKE, VA (Catholic Online) - As Editor-in-Chief of Catholic Online I am surprised by some of the questions and comments we receive asking why we cover daily news when it doesn't concern what the writers call "spiritual" or "religious" matters. There are several ways of answering this question. I will resist the temptation to approach the underlying misconception about the Incarnation and the nature and scope of redemption that such a question may reveal.

Perhaps the first way to answer the question is to restate the obvious, we are a news source. As such, we want to be a part of what is emerging to replace the crumbling infrastructure of the old media. Millions come to Catholic Online for news. We offer it, not only for Catholics but for all who seek news. We also offer views, informed by an integrated Catholic vision of what it means to live in the real world - as real Christians - called to transform it from within. 

This is why we offer channels covering numerous areas of human life, culture and interest. We will be adding to them as well. Having watched the first pre-season football game the other night, I am thrilled that we will soon launch a Sports Channel! After all, to be a Christian is to be a human person, fully alive in Jesus Christ. In fact, the only fully authentic humanism is Christianity. In the words of the Second Vatican Council "Christ, the final Adam, by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear." (GS #22) We are really and fully human, being made new in Him, by grace. We also live really human lives in a very real world into which we are sent to continue His redemptive mission.

Our channels flow from our conviction that the Catholic faith is intended to inform every aspect of culture and transform the way we live in that real world which God Made as a gift. Our faith is to be lived as an integrated whole and so is our daily life. The "separation between faith and life" has been called "one of the greatest errors of our age." That expression is found in the "Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World" (Gaudium et Spes#43)

I also receive questions from well intended people on why we have some of our specific channels. For example, I hear some of the most interesting questions and comments concerning our "Green Channel". This entire area has become extremely polarized in the quickening pace of cultural collapse in the West, it is hard to know how we as Catholic Christians should approach legitimate environmental concerns. So, in this lag time in the news cycle, while people are finishing up their summer vacations and preparing for all that the end of summer brings, let me spend some time explaining some of the vision behind a few of our channels. Today, "Why does Catholic Online Have a Green Channel?"

The Catholic Church has been green for a lot longer than any modern environmental movement. We want to present a Catholic vision for a relational environmentalism; one of stewardship with the earth which God has made and entrusted to us to care for and share. Some in the current "green" movement have clearly lost their way. Think about the inherent contradiction of worrying about polluting the atmosphere with toxic chemicals and at the same time supporting making toxic chemicals available to be ingested by mothers in order to kill the children in their womb. We need a new way of being green, a Catholic way. It's really a very ancient way. It starts with the truth, creation is a gift.

On January 1, 2010 Pope Benedict XVI released a letter entitled "If You Want to Cultivate Peace, protect creation". Some reports intimated that the Pope had somehow "joined" the environmental movement. In fact, he was simply teaching what the Church has always taught; a proper stewardship of the environment is grounded in our obligations to - and solidarity with - one another. We have been given to one another as gifts. Creation has been given to us as a human community, with responsibilities which we must now share. I sent the following excerpt from the letter to a few friends:

"There exists a certain reciprocity: as we care for creation, we realize that God, through creation, cares for us. On the other hand, a correct understanding of the relationship between man and the environment will not end by absolutizing nature or by considering it more important than the human person. If the Church's magisterium expresses grave misgivings about notions of the environment inspired by ecocentrism and biocentrism, it is because such notions eliminate the difference of identity and worth between the human person and other living things. In the name of a supposedly egalitarian vision of the "dignity" of all living creatures, such notions end up abolishing the distinctiveness and superior role of human beings. They also open the way to a new pantheism tinged with neo-paganism, which would see the source of man's salvation in nature alone, understood in purely naturalistic terms."

In this letter the Pope repeated many of the themes which he had developed in his Encyclical Letter entitled "Charity in Truth".  Those themes are a part of Catholic Social teaching, a division of Moral Theology. They are found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and have their roots in the Bible. They are not new at all. The Pope called for "integral human development" which recognizes the centrality of the human person and the primacy of our relationships with one another in family and society.

He underscored the truth that creation is a gift, given to human persons by a God of love who entrusts us with responsibility for one another - and therefore for the goods which promote our human flourishing. We all have a responsibility for one another. We need to live together as good stewards of creation, recognizing the need for what the Church calls a "human ecology":

"The Church has a responsibility towards creation, and she considers it her duty to exercise that responsibility in public life, in order to protect earth, water and air as gifts of God the Creator meant for everyone, and above all to save mankind from the danger of self-destruction. The degradation of nature is closely linked to the cultural models shaping human coexistence: consequently, "when 'human ecology' is respected within society, environmental ecology also benefits".

"Young people cannot be asked to respect the environment if they are not helped, within families and society as a whole, to respect themselves. The book of nature is one and indivisible; it includes not only the environment but also individual, family and social ethics. Our duties towards the environment flow from our duties towards the person, considered both individually and in relation to others.

"Hence I readily encourage efforts to promote a greater sense of ecological responsibility which, as I indicated in my Encyclical "Caritas in Veritate," would safeguard an authentic "human ecology" and thus forcefully reaffirm the inviolability of human life at every stage and in every condition, the dignity of the person and the unique mission of the family, where one is trained in love of neighbour and respect for nature. There is a need to safeguard the human patrimony of society. This patrimony of values originates in and is part of the natural moral law, which is the foundation of respect for the human person ... and creation."

Pope Benedict offers a Catholic Environmental vision which is pro-life, pro-family, pro-poor and pro-peace. We are to receive one another as gifts. We must never use human persons as objects. We should receive creation as a gift, to be shared with one another, and not as an object of use. He concluded the letter with these words: "The Church, for her part, is concerned that the question be approached in a balanced way, with respect for the "grammar" which the Creator has inscribed in his handiwork by giving man the role of a steward and administrator with responsibility over creation, a role which man must certainly not abuse, but also one which he may not abdicate. In the same way, the opposite position, which would absolutize technology and human power, results in a grave assault not only on nature, but also on human dignity itself.

"If you want to cultivate peace, protect creation. The quest for peace by people of good will surely would become easier if all acknowledge the indivisible relationship between God, human beings and the whole of creation. In the light of divine Revelation and in fidelity to the Church's Tradition, Christians have their own contribution to make. They contemplate the cosmos and its marvels in light of the creative work of the Father and the redemptive work of Christ, who by his death and resurrection has reconciled with God "all things, whether on earth or in heaven" (Col 1:20). Christ, crucified and risen, has bestowed his Spirit of holiness upon mankind, to guide the course of history in anticipation of that day when, with the glorious return of the Savior, there will be "new heavens and a new earth" (2 Pet 3:13), in which justice and peace will dwell forever.

"Protecting the natural environment in order to build a world of peace is thus a duty incumbent upon each and all. It is an urgent challenge, one to be faced with renewed and concerted commitment; it is also a providential opportunity to hand down to coming generations the prospect of a better future for all. May this be clear to world leaders and to those at every level who are concerned for the future of humanity: the protection of creation and peacemaking are profoundly linked! For this reason, I invite all believers to raise a fervent prayer to God, the all-powerful Creator and the Father of mercies, so that all men and women may take to heart the urgent appeal: If you want to cultivate peace, protect creation"

So, we offer our Green Channel on Catholic Online. The Catholic Church has been green for a lot longer than any modern environmental movement. It comes with being human. We hope to present a Catholic vision for a relational environmentalism; one of stewardship with the earth which God has made and entrusted to us to care for and share.

Some in the current "green" movement have clearly lost their way. It is obvious. Think about the inherent contradiction of worrying about polluting the atmosphere with toxic chemicals and at the same time supporting making toxic chemicals available to be ingested by mothers in order to kill the children in their womb because they do not want them. We need to articulate a new way of being "green", a Catholic way.

We need to form our Catholic minds in truth and live our Catholic lives as real human persons in the real world. In fact, this kind of integrated fully human life is one of the greatest ways in which we will be able to attract men and women to the central claim of Christianity, Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life, in whom all of creation is made new. We need to embrace a lifestyle which implements a Catholic way of understanding our place with one another - and in the world which God created for all of us to share. 

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