A Church’s Response to the Earth’s Healing in the Face of Ecological Crisis

Abstract

The Roman Catholic Church, thru the Supreme Pontiff, prides herself in her prophetic vocation. Just like the prophets of old, the Church speaks whenever there are social issues that threatens the people of God. Currently, all people are facing the ecological crisis as characterized by unprecedented natural weather patterns (climate change), loss of species of both flora and fauna, desertification and the like. As a crisis, it needs an immediate response. This response is the main focus of this research. Hence, this research aimed to fulfill the following objectives: to describe the current ecological crisis; to identify the Church’s traditional and scriptural basis in responding to the challenges of the ecological crisis; to examine the different Church’s encyclical and teachings as responses to ecological crisis; and to propose recommendations to alleviate the present ecological crisis. The social action cycle of Mater et Magistra was used as framework in identifying the origins of the crisis (context), followed by identifying diachronically the response of the Church drawing from the scripture, tradition (conscience), and examining synchronically the response of the Church’s encyclical with special emphasis on Laudato Si, concluding with concrete recommendations (consciousness) to help alleviate the present ecological crisis. Thus, the result showed that the current ecological crisis is characterized by ‘excessive anthropocentrism’ which is a clear misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the human and nature relationships. Moreover, a clear interpretation of the Biblical truth must be preserved. Lastly, the Catholic Social Teachings, specifically the Laudato Si, indicated that there is a need for a “Dialogue”, among various sciences, to respond effectively to the ecological crisis.