WelCom September 2022
Jim McAloon
September 1 is the World Day of Prayer for Care of Creation, and it begins the month of Care for Creation, concluding on 4 October, the feast of St Francis of Assisi. Care for our common home has been a consistent theme for Pope Francis, notably in his encyclical, Laudato si’. The earth is crying out, he wrote, as he again reminds us in his message for the Day of Prayer.
Francis recalled that St John XXIII had addressed all people of good will about the imminent danger of nuclear war in his 1963 encyclical, Pacem in Terris (Peace on Earth). The ecological crisis is no less grave, no less urgent. In the last few weeks we have seen 40-degree temperatures in Britain, major European rivers running extraordinarily low, and European glaciers shrinking rapidly. In June, Bangladesh endured the worst floods in a century, displacing 4 million people. In July, there was severe flooding across the Philippines.
We all know that very recently, the upper South Island, especially the Nelson region, has been devastated by flooding and slips. Other Pacific Islands are threatened even more than Aotearoa me Te Wai Pounamu by climate change. July’s Pacific Islands Forum emphasised ‘the urgency to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees through rapid, deep and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions’.
There are several ways we can reflect on care for creation. We might dwell on nature’s beauty, favourite places, or noticing our region’s birdlife. That’s important. But St James asks, ‘how does it help, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works?’ How, he asks, can it be right to say to someone in need ‘Go in peace…’ without giving them the bare necessities of life’? Likewise, what good is it to praise God for the beauty of creation without accepting that faith calls us to action?
We are encouraged to do what we can as individuals, families, and households. Many of us will be using our cars less, walking or using public transport when we can, changing diet, taking care to waste no food, reducing rubbish, and so on. ‘A person who could afford to spend and consume more but regularly uses less heating and wears warmer clothes, shows the kind of convictions and attitudes which help to protect the environment. There is a nobility in the duty to care for creation through little daily actions…’ (Laudato si’, para 211).
However, action at all levels of government, state, and economy, is required, including internationally. As citizens, we have the right and the duty to make our voices heard. As we approach the local government elections, it would be well to consider candidates’ positions on ecological issues. Likewise, we should not be shy about letting our members of parliament know of our concerns around climate change and the ecological crisis. Local councillors and parliamentarians need to be encouraged to do the good that they might wish to do.
We also need to remember some sectors of our society may be able to move more quickly, while others will need support to change. Everyone’s situation will be different. Businesses, including farming, will also need support. The important thing is to be realistic about what we can do, and to look for public policy approaches that are based in social justice as well as ecological justice – hearing, as Pope Francis puts it, the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.
In light of this, it’s noteworthy – and welcome – that the New Zealand government has announced a $1.3 billion International Climate Finance Strategy to assist decarbonisation and manage the consequences of an already warming climate, and to support biodiversity and the health of the oceans. As the foreign and climate change ministers acknowledge, the consequences of climate change are disproportionately felt by less wealthy nations and communities, and the government recognises that climate change is ‘an existential threat’ to Pacific nations, and at least half of the fund will go to other Pacific nations, with a strong focus on communities and partners leading the work. Significant sums have already been allocated to initiatives in Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, and Niue.
“As citizens, we have the right and the duty to make our voices heard. As we approach the local government elections, it would be well to consider candidates’ positions on ecological issues.”
Pope Francis reminds us in his message: ‘As persons of faith, we feel ourselves even more responsible for acting each day in accordance with the summons to conversion. Nor is that summons simply individual’. In Laudato si’, he noted: ‘the ecological conversion needed to bring about lasting change is also a community conversion’ (para 219). We need to think about how we can support each other in communities – faith is lived in community; we have other communities too which are also important. And many of us would do well to listen to indigenous, especially Māori, voices.
The challenge is ethical, not only scientific or technological. The American feminist Catholic theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether wrote of creation as both covenant and sacrament. Creation as covenant, extending back to the Hebrew scriptures, suggests that creation is a gift of God and we humans have a responsibility to care for it. Creation as sacrament, simply, is a sign or manifestation of God’s great love. Care for creation is inherent in faith.
Jim McAloon is a professor of History at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington School of History, Philosophy, Political Science and International Relations. Jim is also chair of the Wellington Archdiocesan Commission for Ecology, Justice and Peace.