The Pope cries out for the loss of biodiversity and breakdown in human society, but neglects to inform his audience that the Church itself has played a huge role in Western colonization and development from the start, 500 years ago, and throughout the Industrial Revolution. For two hundred years and more, Catholic priests have served to opened up countless routes and paved the way for hundreds of Western companies involved in resource extraction. And male clergy are still being dispatched to "save" indigenous groups with the gospel. Given his unwillingness to re-distribute the Church's vast assets, it is hypocritical for the Pope to blame corporations, many of which are far less wealthy, for hoarding and perpetuating economic inequality.
Furthermore, since the Church's financial portfolios are professionally managed, they are probably deeply invested in the same destructive corporations that the Vatican blames for the immoral exploitation of nature. After a century of profiting from fossil fuel, a few Protestant institutions are now divesting and encouraging their members to do the same. However, the Pope has not called on the Church or Catholics to divest, and the Vatican itself may still be heavily invested in fossil fuels and other extraction industries. There is limited financial disclosure and the Church's investments remain a huge mystery.
Interestingly, although the encyclical has sections on pollution, climate change and water use, it does not address the Church, the Vatican and the Pope's own consumerism and over-consumption, or their carbon and water footprints which are substantial. The encyclical states, "An awareness of the gravity of today's cultural and ecological crisis must be translated into new habits." And the Pope argues for a new conviction based on "less is more." However, the Church's lavish and wasteful traditions are left entirely unexamined.
The Pontiff wants us all to avoid the use of plastic and paper, reduce water consumption, separate refuse, cook only what can reasonably be consumed, use public transport or car-pooling, plant trees, and turn off unnecessary lights, but the Church itself is not setting a good example. For example, there are thousands of church buildings completely empty except for Sundays, which are maintained year-round for no productive purpose.
Further, millions of gallons of fuel are wasted each Sunday by the faithful driving to and from Church to participate in pointless rituals and lectures on wastefulness. The vast network of Churches expends little effort in organizing car-pools. Furthermore, millions of Catholics from across the globe visit the Vatican via carbon-intensive air travel, which the Pope himself uses and does not discourage. And apart from their daily upkeep, the Pontiff and his entourage require massive security operations to ensure their safety during their numerous fund-raising trips across the world. Given their possible fossil fuel investments and enormous carbon footprints, it is somewhat hypocritical for the Church to lecture others on climate change.
Objectifying Nature as Property
Francis's encyclical tries to address the ideological cause of environmental destruction, however it does so in a contradictory way. While he rightfully blames the rapid exploitation and pollution of the Earth on the dominant technocratic paradigm, he neglects to mention that this process is also gendered. The Pope observes, "In many parts of the planet, the elderly lament that once beautiful landscapes are now covered with rubbish... Never have we so hurt and mistreated our common home as we have in the last 200 years."
Pope Francis even hints at the objectification of nature and nonhuman animals when he writes, "Modern anthropocentrism has paradoxically ended up prizing technical thought over reality, since "the technological mind sees nature as an insensate order, as a cold body of facts, as a mere 'given', as an object of utility, as raw material to be hammered into useful shape." However, he omits the role of Abrahamic religion in shaping the dominant anthropocentric worldview.
To counter this utilitarian and instrumentalist view of reality and nature, the Pontiff argues, "We are not God. The Earth was here before us and was given to us." These two sentences acknowledges human's lack of ownership of nature, however they reinforce the notion that the Earth is property, and specifically the property of a mysterious sky god.
Conveniently for Pope Francis, the entire planet is under the purview of God's main representative on Earth, himself. With the Church's continued assertion of heavenly ownership, the autonomy of nonhuman animals and nature, and that of the entire Earth, are exorcised and usurped by the Church. It was this illusion of divine gifting to men which justified their objectification and the technocratic destruction of nature in the first place, and it continues to justify men's exploitation and domination.
Pope Francis also refers to the Earth as a sister to man, which is characterized by one writer as ecofeminist philosophy. The Pontiff writes of the Earth, "This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will."
Given his reinforcement of man's dominion over the Earth, the Pope's characterization represents a negative feminizing of the Earth as "sister" and "mother." This narrative is part of a spirit/matter dualism in Western culture, in which nature is feminine and 'spirit' is masculine. His false equivalency ignores the power of the Earth to endure mankind's destruction, and the precariousness of human existence in comparison.
Another contradictory way in which the encyclical discusses the root cause of environmental destruction relates to the Pope's self-serving social and psychological analysis. Pope Francis and his predecessors have repeatedly stated that the natural environment has been gravely damaged by humans' irresponsible behavior. Moreover, they relate the natural destruction to an equally damaged social and family environment.
The Pontiffs all place blame for centuries of male violence and distruction on human 'sin' and lack of faith in God, and, all too conveniently, on humans' lack of faith in God's chosen representatives enshrined in the Church. For example, Pope Benedict argued that environmental and social problems are "ultimately due to the same evil: the notion that there are no indisputable truths to guide our lives, and hence human freedom is limitless." He continues, "The misuse of creation begins when we no longer recognize any higher instance than ourselves, when we see nothing else but ourselves."
And Francis's encyclical concludes that the best way to restore men and women to their rightful place as part of nature, and to end men's claim of absolute dominion over the earth, is "to speak once more of the figure of a Father who creates and who alone owns the world." Otherwise, he argues, "human beings will always try to impose their own laws and interests on reality."
Francis also blames environmmental and social destruction on rampant individualism, consumerism, and the culture of relativism. He argues "we must forcefully reject the notion that our being created in God's image and given dominion over the earth justifies absolute domination over other creatures." However, the Church's framing of nature as creation is a fundamental part of "dominion theology" and its' inherent master/slave ethic. Far from being an outright rejection of dominionism, the Pope's pleading for more enlightened stewardship is based on its continued propagation.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
3
2
2
