environmental justice and querida amazonia

Environmental Justice is the most consequential example of combining the Church’s advocacy for Care for Creation with its Social Justice teaching.  Please refer to Querida Amazonia, Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation in  response to the Bishops’ 2019 Synod on the Amazon, for the Church’s most recent teaching on global environmental justice. But let us also go back more than 30 years to St. Pope John Paul II who laid the groundwork for the Church’s advocacy for the global solidarity necessary to realize Environmental Justice: States must increasingly share responsibility, in complimentary ways, for the promotion of a natural and social environment that is both peaceful and healthy. The newly industrialized States cannot, for example, be asked to apply restrictive environmental standards to their emerging industries unless the industrialized States first apply them within their own boundaries. (Pg. 10 of Message for World Day of Peace, 1990). Pope Francis in Laudato Si’ cited a concrete case for Environmental Justice - the “ecological debt” between the global north and south (Pg. 51-52). Ecological debt refers to the accumulated debt owed by wealthier countries for having taken advantage of poorer countries by the exploitation of their resources, the degradation of their natural habitat, the subjugation of local people and/or the free use of environmental space for waste discharge. Finally, a wonderful way for us to appreciate the meaning and calling of Environmental Justice with an example close to home  is to know the story of our Catholic sister, Hazel Johnson, known today as “the mother of environmental justice.” The Chicago housing project where Ms. Johnson lived was built upon a former toxic dump site and surrounded by industrial plants, hazardous waste sites and landfills. It was, in Ms. Johnson’s words, a “toxic doughnut.” Read the story of how Ms. Johnson spent most of her adult life as a community organizer bringing more humane and safe living conditions to her community. (www.ncronline.org/news/earthbeat/hazel-johnson-mother-environmental-justice-was-catholic).

So, what about us? One way to respond is to explore the information on  the Catholic Climate Covenant’s website
(https://catholicclimatecovenant.org), especially on the topic of Environmental Justice. Currently, they are promoting a 21day environmental justice challenge. Give it a look.