No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
A New Dawn? The Roman Catholic Church and Environmental Issues
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2024
Extract
Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.
Introduction
Awareness of environmental issues, seems, if anything, to be on the increase. In spite of fears that the public debate about the ‘green’ agenda would fade, rather like the anxiety over a threat of a nuclear holocaust, which is now far less prominent compared with the 1970s, politicians today seem even more aware of the need to include environmental concerns in their policy statements. Yet there still seems to be a gap opening up between political affirmations and cries for more radical restructuring. This gap has led to heightened tension, exemplified by the high profile displays of attachment to the land shown by characters such as Daniel Needs, alias ‘Swampy’, who, in January 1997 buried himself underground in an attempt to prevent an A30 ‘improvement’ programme near Fairmile in Devon. Such actions may seem extreme, but they epitomize the dissatisfaction, especially of the young, with the ineffectiveness of politicians to make any real difference and an almost total lack of clear national transport policy. Such dissatisfaction is expressed in other ways as well: now more young people belong to voluntary environmental groups than political parties. Official jargon and teaching feels alienating for those who want to see real practical advances in the way we treat our planet. Such language also spreads into official Church documentation on other issues in a way that alienates many ordinary men and women.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © 1997 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers
References
1 ‘Joint Church Statement on Ecology’, cited in Gosling, D., A New Earth (CCBI, 1992), p. 20.Google Scholar
2 ‘Desertification of Ghana’, Justice and Peace Commission of the Catholic Church of Ghana, September, 1982.
3 “The Cry for Land”, Pastoral letter by the Guatemalan Bishops' Conference, 1987, Newsletter, 4 (1988), p. 4.Google Scholar
4 See Deane‐Drummond, C., ‘Development and Environment: in Dialogue with Liberation Theology’, New Blackfriars, Vol 78. (June 1997), pp. 279–289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5 See Gosling, D., op. cit., pp. 53–54.Google Scholar
6 Full text appears in Appendix 2 in McDonagh, S., The Greening of the Church (Geoffrey Chapman, 1990), pp 206–216Google Scholar, see p. 208.
7 Ibid., p. 211.
8 Full text reprinted in Theology in Green, Issue3 (1992), pp. 19–27.Google Scholar
9 Ibid, p. 23.
10 Ibid, p. 25.
11 ‘Love for Creation: An Asian Response to the Environmental Crisis’, Catholic International, June 1993, pp. 270.Google Scholar
12 Fox, M., Original Blessing (Bear and Co., 1983).Google Scholar
13 See, for example, Sorrell, R.D., St Francis of Assisi and Nature, Oxford University Press, 1988.Google Scholar
14 Stanton, H., ‘Vividitas: The Greeness of Hildegaard of Bingen’, Theology in Green, Vol. 4, issue3 (1994), pp. 26–30.Google Scholar
15 McCarthy, J., ‘Cistercians and Land: A Geography of Salvation’, Theology in Green, Vol. 4, issue3 (1994), pp. 5–18.Google Scholar
16 Deane‐Drummond, C., Recalling the Dream: Celtic Spirituality and Ecological Consciousness, Theology in Green, Issue7 (July 1993), pp. 32–28.Google Scholar
17 See, especially, McDonagh, S., The Greening of the Church, op. cit; Passion for the Earth (Geoffrey Chapman, 1994).Google Scholar
18 von Balthasar, H., Explorations in Theology HI: Creator Spirit (Ignatius Press, 1993).Google Scholar
19 Zizioulas, J., ‘Preserving God's Creation, Part 3’, King's Theological Review, Vol. 13, issue1 (1990), pp. 1–5.Google Scholar
20 Murray, R., The Cosmic Covenant (Sheed and Ward, 1992).Google Scholar
21 McCarthy, J., ‘The Expectant Groaning of Creation: Cosmic Redemption in Romans 8: 19–22’, Theology in Green, Vol. 4, issue1 (1994), pp. 24–34.Google Scholar
22 Clark, S., How to Think About the Earth (Mowbray, 1994).Google Scholar
23 Linzey, A., Animal Theology (SCM Press, 1994).Google Scholar
24 Atkins, M., ‘Could There be Squirrels in Heaven?’, Theology in Green, Vol. 4 (October 1992), pp. 17–27.Google Scholar
25 Deane‐Drummond, C., Theology and Biotechnology: Implications for a New Science (Geoffrey Chapman, 1997), in press.Google Scholar
26 See, ‘Home News: Will Cloned Sheep Pave the Way for Humans?’, The Tablet, (1 March 1997), p. 304. The technique as applied to humans was condemned in Donum Vitae, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (1987).
27 “The Living Churchyards”, A DIY Information Pack (Church and Conservation Project, 1987).
28 ACORA, Faith in the Countryside (Churchman Publishing Ltd, 1990).Google Scholar
29 Deane‐Drummond, C., A Handbook in Theology and Ecology (SCM Press, 1996), pp. 13–14.Google Scholar
You have
Access