The essay contest was co-organized by The Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development and the Salesian Pontifical University- Jerusalem campus.
THE BASIS IN CATHOLIC TEACHINGS FOR
RENEWABLE ENERGY USE
By: Agoabin Javis Zinkeng
Saint Thomas Aquinas’ Major Seminary, Bambui, Cameroon
INTRODUCTION
Pope John Paul II asserts that the care for the environment represents a challenge for all of humanity. It is a matter of a common and universal duty, of respecting a common good1 destined for all, by preventing anyone from using “with impunity the different categories of beings, whether living or inanimate simply as one wishes, according to one’s own economic needs.”2 Similarly, Pope Francis laments: the earth is now in crisis because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed us. We have come to see ourselves as the earth’s lords and masters entitled to plunder her at will.3 Renewable energy4 refers to energy that is replaced naturally and can therefore be used without the risk of exhausting its supply. Examples of renewable energy sources include wind and solar power. This article sets out to give the basis in Catholic teaching of renewable energy use.
1. THE POLLUTION OF THE ATMOSPHERE
Pope Francis intimates that some forms of pollution are part of people’s daily experience. Exposure to atmospheric pollutants produces a broad spectrum of health hazards. People take ill from breathing high levels of smoke from fuels used in cooking and heating. He also states that pollution is caused by the various means of transport, industrial fumes, substances which contribute to the acidification of soil and water, fertilizers and insecticides.5 Given that energy sources, such as oil and coal, pollute the atmosphere, renewable energy is a better option in that it prevents pollution of the atmosphere.
Three years ago I was in a parish, for a Pastoral Year, called St. Martin de Porres Parish Bekora. This parish is situated in the Diocese of Kumba in Cameroon. There is a company located there called Pamol Plantation PLC, which produces palm oil for local consumption and some of it is exported abroad. Due to the constant heating in this company, this area is greatly polluted. As if this were not enough, there are constant power failures in this area. There are times that this area goes for two weeks without electricity. If renewable energy could be introduced in this area, it will greatly improve the standard of living of people living there.
2. CREATION AS A GIF
Pope John Paul II opines that not only has God given the earth to man who must use it with respect for the original good purpose for which it was given to him, but mankind, too, is God’s gift to man. He must therefore respect the natural order and moral structures with which he was endowed.6 Similarly, Pope Benedict XVI intimates that the environment is God’s gift to everyone, and in our use of it, we have a responsibility towards the poor and towards humanity as a whole. Our duties towards the environment are linked to our duties towards the human person, considered in himself and in relation to others.7 It follows that since the earth is God’s gift to man, man ought to take proper care of it and one of the ways to do this is through renewable energy use.
3. USE, DO NOT ABUSE
Woodenne Koenic maintains that man is invited to look anew at the book of Genesis, where the instructions for ethical behaviour towards the earth are woven into the very fabric of creation. God put human beings in charge of the earth to have dominion over animals and to cultivate and care for it. He asserts that, almost from the beginning, problems arose.8The underlying problem, Pope Benedict XVI posits, is that God’s original command to have dominion over the earth has been sorely corrupted. He states that as long as the earth was considered as God’s creation, the task of subduing it was never intended as an order to enslave it but rather as a task of being guardians of creation and developing its gifts, of actively collaborating in God’s work ourselves, in the evolution that he had in the world so that the gifts of creation might be appreciated rather than trampled upon and destroyed.9 Thus, with renewable energy use God’s creation is better maintained.
4. THE PRINCIPLE OF THE COMMON GOOD
The Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, states that the common good is “the sum total of those conditions of social life which allow social groups and thier individual members relatively thorough and ready access to their own fulfilment.”10In 2007, in a speech in the courtyard of the Papal residence at Castel Gondolfo, Pope Benedict XVI urged that cooperation on everyone’s part be intensified in order to promote the common good, development and safeguarding of creation. At the same time, he said that in the last two decades, thanks to the exemplary collaboration between scientists, politicians and economists within the international community, important results have been obtained with positive repercussions on present and future generations.11 Hence, with the use of renewable energy the common good of society will be safeguarded.
5. FUTURE GENERATIONS
Pope Paul VI avers that we have inherited from past generations and we have benefited from the work of our contemporaries: for this reason we have obligations towards all, and we cannot refuse to interest ourselves in those who will come after us, to enlarge the human family.12 Similarly, Pope John Paul II states that programmes of economic development must carefully consider the need to respect the integrity and the cycles of nature because natural resources are limited and some are not renewable.13For Pope Francis, once we start to think about the kind of world we are leaving to future generations, we look at things differently; we realize that the world is a gift which we have freely received and must share with others.14Therefore, renewable energy use will enable man to guard scarce natural resources in order that future generations could also benefit from these precious gifts.
6. SOBRIETY AND TEMPERANCE
W. Koenic posits that lifestyle should be oriented according to the principles of sobriety, temperance and self-discipline, both at the personal and social levels. Furthermore, he states that people need to escape from the consumer mentality and promote methods of production that respect the created order, as well as safeguarding basic needs of all.15 In the same vein, Pope Benedict XVI asserts that “the lordship over nature of which the biblical narrative speaks does not mean a violent exploitation of nature but rather an understanding of nature’s inherent possibilities. This serves as a caution in the way in which we serve nature and nature serves us.”16 Again, for Pope Francis, the issue of environmental degradation challenges us to examine our lifestyle.17 It follows that if these principles are practiced, our common home will be well catered for.
7. THE ROLE OF COOPERATIVES
According to Pope Francis, in some places, cooperatives are being developed to exploit renewable sources of energy which ensure local self-sufficiency and even the sale of surplus energy. For him, this simple example shows that while the existing world order proves powerless to assume its responsibilities, local individuals and groups can make a real difference. They are able to instill a greater sense of responsibility, a strong sense of community, a readiness to protect others, a spirit of creativity and a deep love for the land.18 Thus for change to be experienced in the world it just needs one person or a few individuals to begin and it would have a multiplier effect. As the metaphysical principle goes, goodness diffuses itself. A few individuals just have to begin the use of renewable energy and it would spread to other areas, similar to the domino effect.
8. CREATION AND REDEMPTION ARE INSEPARABLE
Pope John Paul II makes this link clearly, when he states that in the Redeemer of the world, has been revealed in a new and more wonderful way the fundamental truth concerning creation to which the Book of Genesis gives witness when it repeats several times: “God saw that it was good.” The good has its source in Wisdom and Love. In Jesus Christ, the visible world which God created for man recovers again its original link with the divine source of Wisdom and Love. Indeed, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son” (Jn 3:16). As this link was broken in the man Adam, so in the Man Christ it was reforged.19 For Pope Francis, the solution to all the problems facing our environment cannot be reworked in political and economic ideologies alone but ultimately, it is found in Jesus Christ and our relationship with Him, our neighbour and the created order, which is of the order of love.20 Hence renewable energy use has its basis first in the person of Jesus Christ.
CONCLUSION
Our aim in this essay has been to present the teaching of the Catholic Church on renewable energy. Eight arguments were posited to defend the teaching of the Catholic Church on renewable energy. These included: the pollution of the atmosphere, examining creation as a gift from God, the appeal to use and not to abuse, the principle of the common good, care for future generations, the principle of sobriety and temperance, the role of cooperatives and the inseparable link that exists between Creation and Redemption. From our investigations, we have realized that our common home is in great danger and that man has the responsibility to act, to prevent it from getting worse than it is today. We observed that the best way to safeguard our common home from pollution and the other ills plaguing it, is by the use of renewable energy, whose cost could easily be paid for by both rich and poor countries. Nevertheless, in order that renewable energy sources be effectively used in the world, there is a great need for collaboration among developed and underdeveloped nations. This collaboration should be through agreements, backed by international law, to protect the environment.
1 Cfr. John PAUL ll, Encyclical Letter “On the Hundrendth Anniversary of Rerum Novarum,” Centesimus Annus (1st May 1991), Libreria Editrice Vaticana Vatican City, Italy 1991, n. 40.
2 John PAUL II, Encyclical Letter “On Social Concerns,” Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (30th December 1987) Libreria Editrice Vaticana Vatican City, Italy 1987, n. 34.
3 Cfr. Francis, Encyclical Letter “On Care for Our Common Home,” Laudato Si (24th May 2015), Libreria Editrice Vaticana Vatican City, Italy 2015, n. 2.
4 “Renewable energy” in Sally WEHMEIER (edit.), Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English, 6th Edition, Oxford University Press New York, United States of America 2000, 993.
5Cfr. Francis, Encyclical Letter “On Care for Our Common Home,” Laudato Si (24thMay 2015), n. 20.
6 Cfr. John PAUL II, Encyclical Letter “On the Hundrendth Anniversary of Rerum Novarum,” Centesimus Annus (1st May 1991), n. 38.
7 Cfr. BENEDICT XVI, Encyclical Letter Charity in Truth, “Caritas in Veritate” (29th June 2009), Libreria Editrice Vaticana Vatican City, Italy 2009, nn. 48, 51.
8 Woodeene KOENIG, Ten Commandments for the Environment: Pope Benedict Speaks Out for Creation and Justice, Ave Maria Press Notre dame Indiana, United State of America 2009, 28.
9 Cfr. BENEDICT XVI, “Meeting with Priests, Deacons and Seminarians of the Diocese of Bolzano-Bressanone,” August 6th, 2008, http:// www.vatican.va/
holy father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2008/august/ documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20080860_clero-bressanone_en.html.
10 Austin FLANNERY (edit.), Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes (7thDecember 1965), Rekha Printers Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi, Mumbai 1975, n. 26.
11Cfr. Benedict XVI, “Angelus Address,” Papal Summer Residence, Castel Gondolfo, September 16th ,2007,
http://www.vatican.va/ holy father/benedict_xvi/angelus/ 2007/documents/hf _ben-xvi_ang_20070916_en.html.
12 Cfr. PAUL VI, Encyclical Letter “On the Development of Peoples” Populorum Progressio (26th March 1967) Libreria Editrice Vaticana Vatican City, Italy 1967, n. 17.
13Cfr. John PAUL II, Encyclical Letter on Social Concerns, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (30thDecember 1987) n. 26.
14Cfr. Francis, Encyclical Letter “On Care for Our Common Home,” Laudato Si (24thMay 2015), n. 159.
15 Cfr. Woodeene KOENIG, Ten Commandments for the Environment: Pope Benedict Speaks Out for Creation and Justice, 125.
16BENEDICT XVI, Values in a Time of Upheaval, Ignatius Press, San Francisco 2006, 159.
17Cfr. Francis, Encyclical Letter “On Care for Our Common Home,” Laudato Si (24thMay 2015), n. 206.
18Cfr. Francis, Encyclical Letter “On Care for Our Common Home,” Laudato Si (24thMay 2015), n. 179.
19 Cfr. John PAUL II Encyclical Letter “On the Redeemer of Man,” Redemptor Hominis, (4th March 1979), Libreria Editrice Vaticana Vatican City, Italy 1979, n. 8.
20Cfr. Francis, Encyclical Letter “On Care for Our Common Home,” Laudato Si (24thMay 2015), n. 77.