Catholics are getting wise about environment

The Catholic Church takes an interest in protecting the environment, but the forms that interest takes are ever-changing, as technology makes the Earth more and more of a global village, and scientific advances make people aware of how their lifestyles affect the planet.

As far back as 1974, the U.S. Catholic Conference begged Congress to work toward "moral interdependence" among the peoples of the world -- in other words, taking responsibility for the well-being of all people and creation.

In 1999, America's bishops noted in "Faithful Citizenship" that "our stewardship of the earth is a kind of participation in God's act of creating and sustaining the world."

Interdependence

To the New York State Catholic Conference, that means taking note of the effect of acid rain, toxic waste, global warming, overdevelopment, agricultural issues and the use of energy resources.

This year, the Conference, which lobbies on matters of concern on behalf of the state's bishops, added environmental concerns to its legislative agenda for the first time. According to human services director Earl Eichelberger, the idea has been a long time coming.

"It's been discussed before, but we were focused on other issues," he explained.

Environmental issues tend to be global, while the Catholic Conference has targeted more regional concerns.

Rural interest

But this year is different. Mr. Eichelberger said that a council of Catholic Charities directors created many committees recently, and one in particular addressed problems that affect rural communities. Out of that grew a concern that environmental issues needed to be examined more.

Since rural and poor areas often struggle with the effects of pollution and toxic-waste dumping, the issue eventually made its way to the Catholic Conference, which added it to its 2004 legislative agenda.

"The Church teaches that the Earth is God's creation. We are charged with taking care of God's creation," Mr. Eichelberger stated. "That means being good stewards."

Besides, he said, environmental issues are actually related to the life issues for which the Church so strongly advocates: Without clean air, human beings wouldn't have life at all.

Three concerns

Three issues of concern were chosen for the Conference's agenda: the impact of power plant pollution, refinancing the New York State Superfund to clean up toxic waste sites, and preserving farmland and family farms.

Regarding power plants, the Conference is advocating further reductions of power plant emissions, stopping acid rain and slowing the effects of climate change (for instance, rising sea levels on the state's coastline and the Great Lakes). Specifically, they are lobbying to reduce nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide emissions by 75 percent and mercury emissions by 90 percent, and capping carbon dioxide emissions at a level at least seven percent below 1990 levels by the year 2007.

Superfund

The state Superfund is meant to clean up identified toxic waste sites and test other sites as possible candidates for clean-ups.

The Catholic Conference would like to see the establishment of a ten-year clean-up program -- wherein polluters must pay for the remediation -- and to clean up groundwater, where toxic chemicals often settle.

Farmland is among the most crucial of environmental issues as well, since the rural areas of the state are home to 32,000 farms, but those numbers are dropping. The Catholic Conference recommends protecting farmland through Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) programs, which pay property owners to ensure that open land won't be used for anything but agriculture.

Renewal

Mr. Eichelberger noted that Catholics of the Albany Diocese should be concerned about all these issues and more (see separate story), because the 14 counties of the Diocese encompass rural, suburban and urban areas.

"There has been progress made in people taking responsibility for caring for the environment," he added.

While people once shrugged off environmental protection with slogans like, "the Earth will renew itself," Mr. Eichelberger countered, "We can't take that for granted."

(Read more about the Catholic Conference's position on environmental issues at www.nyscatholic.org.)

Here is what some Church officials have said about the environment:

* "Humanity faces problems in five interrelated fields: environment, energy, economics, equity and ethics. To ensure the survival of a healthy planet, then, we must not only establish a sustainable economy but must also labor for justice both within and among nations." -- U.S. Catholic Conference, "Renewing the Earth," 1991

* "The goods of the Earth are gifts from God....Christians should be guided both by concern for the welfare of others and by respect for the intrinsic worth and beauty of God's environment and all His creatures....Citizens and elected officials share a moral responsibility to preserve and protect the environment to ensure the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat are not jeopardized for succeeding generations." -- New York State Catholic Conference, "Pursuing Justice: Catholic Social Teaching and Issues in Contemporary Theology," 2002

* "Even men and women without any particular religious conviction...recognize their obligation to contribute to the restoration of a healthy environment. All the more should men and women who believe in God the Creator, and who are thus convinced that there is a well-defined unity and order in the world, feel called to address the problem." -- Pope John Paul II, "Peace with God the Creator, Peace with All Creation," 1989

* "The very magnitude of the crisis...does not exonerate us, as individuals, from becoming an integral part of the solution....We can begin to consume less....We need to wean ourselves away from the excessive urge to amass possessions....To those suggestions, I would add avoidance of littering the landscape, the use of recyclable products, and support of efforts of local and state governments to find long-range solutions for the pressing problem of disposing of our solid waste. Equally important, we must learn how we in the United States enjoy access to the life systems and resources of Earth in ways that are detrimental to poorer countries." -- Bishop Howard J. Hubbard, "Ways to protect God's good Earth," The Evangelist, April 4, 1990

(3/25/04) [[In-content Ad]]