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Jackson (right) at Harlem's Riverside ValleyCommunity Garden. April 22, 2010.

Photo: Flicker/greenforall.org

The head of the US Environmental Protection Agency today announced her resignation. There has been much speculation as to why.

Lisa Perez Jackson, who is Catholic, has a long history in the field of environmental protection and public health. She is known for her passion for protecting children’s health and greening urban communities.

A chemical engineer and the first African American to take the reigns at EPA, Jackson stressed environmental justice and the inclusion of women, minorities, and the poor. She was also a voice of reason that sought not to vilify the private sector—even if critics claim otherwise. Rather, as we hear in her speech at the opening of the USRio+2.0 Conference at the StanfordKnight ManagementCenter in February 2012, Jackson sought to include industry leaders in finding ways to attain a clean...

When the pope speaks, environmentalists await with eager expectation for any mention of pollution or protecting nature. I know I do. These are, after all, topics that Pope Benedict XVI has become known for mentioning.

In his December 21st Christmas speech to cardinals and leaders of Vatican offices, the Holy Father did mention the environment—but not in a way that some in the eco-protection world may have appreciated.

Throughout his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI has routinely linked human nature with ecological laws—as he did in the master quote of this blog, taken from his 2009 letter to the Church Caritas in Veritate. The link that the Holy Father speaks of between our duties toward the environment and toward the human person allows dialogue from one side of that equation to the other. This not only makes ecology a moral issue—one that Catholic social teaching can elevate to matters of human dignity—it also makes ecology a teaching tool for what it means to be human.

And so in his speech to Vatican officials, the pontiff directly linked ecology to the vital importance of the family, which has been distorted in modern...

Because they come with so many implications for individuals, nations, and the environment, Catholics must engage the growing questions of how, where, and in what quantities people produce energy.

The Holy Father has not only raised these questions, he has also outlined ways in which the Church can offer her voice to address them. He speaks specifically of the “energy problem” in his 2009 social encyclical Caritas in Veritate (Love/Charity in Truth). In it he notes the need for a fair distribution of resources and for research in renewable energy technologies. In light of excessive levels of carbon emissions from fossil-fuel-fired power plants and from our transportation sectors—as well as local and global tensions over the production, buying and selling of energy—business as usual is not in the short- or long-term interest of the human race. Truly, the energy problem is a moral one.

Last spring, the Dioceses of Cleveland and Youngstown Ohio held a joint meeting on hydraulic fracking—a rather unpleasant technology for extracting natural gas. The event brought together energy company representatives,...

I spent the day tending to my mom. She has a few ailments that sapped her energy during the night and this morning. Today for the first time she began using a walker. A sad sight indeed. But she recovered to almost normal as the day progressed—fitting, because today is the vigil of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

At Mass tonight, I was delighted to pray for my mom while celebrating with my parish family this most profound intervention in history by God: The conception of Mary unstained by original sin.

As I prayed and decompressed from the stress of the day, I couldn’t help but ponder how my mom’s age and ailments are taking her independence and vigor—how sin is corrupting her earthly body, as it does to us all. Our world, too, has a habit of decaying even without the intrusion of the fallen human race. As St. Paul tells us, all creation is groaning (Rom. 8:22). But it groans even more so because of us. Indeed, it is telling that in the covenant with Noah, the Lord God specifically states that all animals will have...

Allen Ottaro of Kenya is Executive Director of Catholic Youth Network for Environmental Sustainability in Africa. At 28, he’s traveled and done more than many twice his age. Allen (or Al, as his friends call him) is the face of the African continent’s future—a future of thriving economies and cultures as well as the preservation of its identity, its abundant natural, beautiful resources, and its soul. 

Al is a true Catholic ecologist. Because he was kind enough to share some of his thoughts and experiences, I am delighted to share them with you.
[Update (December 4): The following interview takes on even more value given recent statements by Bishop Bernard Kasanda of Mbuji-Mayi in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Bishop Kasanda has condemned the international community for failing to react to unrest and invasions caused by factions seeking control of mineral and oil resources. Read here for more.]

Allen Ottaro
What have been...

Bethlehem

Photo: Flicker/pldrtbrennan

November 2012


News about the approaching Christmas shopping season—of strikes at Walmart, economic projections, and angry consumers—calls my attention to a group of artisans in the Holy Land that are seeking economic stability and peace—and who seek to do so in ecologically mindful ways.

The Bethlehem Fair Trade Artisans is a coalition of craftspeople that make a wide range of religious and artistic goods. They seek to use their God-given talents to feed their families and bring order to local economies. Moreover, they desire to sell their wares in a time challenged by growing hostilities, bombings, and political turmoil. They are a people of various faiths but they seek to communally abide by fair-trade practices, which means that they have shared economic, societal, and environmental ends.

The attention to justice, social cohesion, and care for natural resources makes the fair-trade approach a model for life in general. In the Middle East—where deadly rocket fire...

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About the Blog

Catholic Ecology posts my regular column in the Rhode Island Catholic, as well as scientific and theological commentary about the latest eco-news, both within and outside of the Catholic Church. What is contained herein is but one person's attempt to teach and defend the Church's teachings - ecological and otherwise. As such, I offer all contents of this blog for approval of the bishops of the Church. It is my hope that nothing herein will lead anyone astray from truth.