Laudato Si’ and Catholic Health Care: Reflections and Implications

Daniel R. DiLeo, M.T.S.Project Manager, Catholic Climate Covenantdandileo@catholicclimatecovenant.orgwww.CatholicClimateCovenant.org

Overview

•Context

•Distinct Contributions

•Response

Public Theology

Public Theology

• Public theology seeks to shape public discourse and political policies through the intelligible communication of church teaching ad intra and ad extra.

▫ Cf. David Hollenbach, "Public Theology in America: Some Questions for Catholicism After John Courtney Murray," Theological Studies 37, no. 2 (1976), 299.; Michael J. Himes and Kenneth R. Himes, Fullness of Faith: The Public Significance of Theology (Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1993), 4-5.

Catholic Social Teaching• Body of key magisterial documents that together “propose

principles for reflection; provide criteria for judgment; [and] give guidelines for action.”

Catechism of the Catholic Church, #2423

Catholic Social Teaching1. Human Dignity

2. Respect for Human Life

3. Association

4. Participation

5. Preferential Protection for the Poor and Vulnerable

6. Solidarity

7. Stewardship

8. Subsidiarity

9. Human Equality

10.Common Good

“Ten Building Blocks of Catholic Social Teaching” by William J. Byron, S.J.

Stewardship

•"God saw that it was good.” Genesis 1

•"The LORD God then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it."

Genesis 2:15

Stewardship• “The Christian faith is an integral unity, and thus

it is incoherent to isolate some particular element to the detriment of the whole of Catholic doctrine.”

Congregation for the Doctrine of the FaithDoctrinal Note on some Questions regarding the

Participation of Catholics in Political Life, 2002

Vs.

Stewardship• “We cannot interfere in one area of the

ecosystem without paying due attention both to the consequences of such interference in other areas and to the well-being of future generations.”

Pope John Paul II1990 World Day of Peace Message,

no. 6, emphasis in original

Stewardship• “The way humanity treats the environment

influences the way it treats itself, and vice versa.”

Pope Benedict XVICaritas in Veritate

no. 51 emphasis in original

Stewardship• “I wish to repeat that the ecological crisis is a moral issue.”

Pope John Paul II1990 World Day of Peace Message, no. 15, emphasis in

original

• “The Church has a responsibility towards creation and she must assert this responsibility in the public sphere”

Pope Benedict XVICaritas in Veritate, no. 51, emphasis in original

Climate Change

Climate Change

http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/

Climate Change

IPCC Fourth Assessment Report: Climate Change 2007https://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/syr/en/figure-spm-7.html

Climate Change

• “Climatic changes already are estimated to cause over 150,000 deaths annually.”

World Health Organizationhttp://www.who.int/heli/risks/climate/climatechange/en/

Climate Change• Fossil fuel “combustion releases carbon dioxide and a

buildup of this gas over lime could affect temperatures worldwide ill ways that are difficult to predict. Such a phenomenon could cause significant climatic changes, jeopardize food supplies by altering growing conditions in agricultural areas, perhaps even trigger catastrophic flooding by melting parts of the polar ice caps. It would be the height of folly to tamper in ignorance with the ecology of the entire planet.“

• “Advocacy in the political arena…”

United States Catholic Conference Committee on Social Development and World Peace

Reflections on the Energy Crisis, 1981 p. 13, 24

Climate Change• The “’greenhouse effect’ has now reached crisis

proportions as a consequence of industrial growth, massive urban concentrations and vastly increased energy.”

Pope John Paul II1990 World Day of Peace Message, no. 6

Climate Change• “In facing climate change, what we already know

requires a response; it cannot be easily dismissed. Significant levels of scientific consensus—even in a situation with less than full certainty, where the consequences of not acting are serious—justifies, indeed can obligate, our taking action intended to avert potential dangers.

“In other words, if enough evidence indicates that the present course of action could jeopardize humankind's well-being, prudence dictates taking mitigating or preventative action.”

U.S. Conference of Catholic BishopsGlobal Climate Change:

A Plea for Dialogue, Prudence and the Common Good, 2001

Climate Change• “Can we remain indifferent before the problems associated

with such realities as climate change . . . ?”2010 World Day of Peace Message

• “Particular attention to climate change [is a] matter of grave concern for the entire human family.”

Letter of His Holiness Benedict XVI to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, 2007

Laudato Si’

1) Integral Ecology

• “Since everything is closely interrelated, and today’s problems call for a vision capable of taking into account every aspect of the global crisis, I suggest that we now consider some elements of an integral ecology” (no. 138, emphasis in original).

• “It cannot be emphasized enough how everything is interconnected” (139).

• “Nature cannot be regarded as something separate from ourselves or as a mere setting in which we live. We are part of nature, included in it and thus in constant interaction with it” (139).

1) Integral Ecology

• “Some forms of pollution are part of people’s daily experience. Exposure to atmospheric pollutants produces a broad spectrum of health hazards, especially for the poor, and causes millions of premature deaths” (no. 20).

• “Sources of fresh water are necessary for health care, agriculture and industry" (no. 28).

• “Frequently no measures are taken until after people’s health has been irreversibly affected” (21).

2) Technocracy

• “The way that humanity has taken up technology and its development according to an undifferentiated and one-dimensional paradigm” (106).

• “The economy accepts every advance in technology with a view to profit, without concern for its potentially negative impact on human beings” (109).

3) Materialism & “Throwaway Culture”

• “These problems are closely linked to a throwaway culture which affects the excluded just as it quickly reduces things to rubbish" (22).

• “Since the market tends to promote extreme consumerism in an effort to sell its products, people can easily get caught up in a whirlwind of needless buying and spending. Compulsive consumerism is one example of how the techno-economic paradigm affects individuals” (203).

• "So we cannot fail to consider the effects on people’s lives of environmental deterioration, current models of development and the throwaway culture" (43).

4) Public Policies

• “How weak international political responses have been” to climate change mitigation and adaptation needs (54).

• “Enforceable international agreements are urgently needed to address climate change” (173).

4) Public Policies

• “We know that technology based on the use of highly polluting fossil fuels – especially coal, but also oil and, to a lesser degree, gas – needs to be progressively replaced without delay. Until greater progress is made in developing widely accessible sources of renewable energy, it is legitimate to choose the less harmful alternative or to find short-term solutions. But the international community has still not reached adequate agreements about the responsibility for paying the costs of this energy transition” (165).

5) Ecological Education

• Highlight “the gravity of today’s cultural and ecological crisis” (no. 209).

• Offer a “critique of the ‘myths’ of a modernity grounded in a utilitarian mindset (individualism, unlimited progress, competition, consumerism, the unregulated market)” (no. 210).

• “Restore the various levels of ecological equilibrium ... facilitate making the leap towards the transcendent which gives ecological ethics its deepest meaning” (ibid.).

5) Ecological Education

• “Ecological education can take place in a variety of settings: at school, in families, in the media, in catechesis and elsewhere” (no. 213).

• “It needs educators capable of developing an ethics of ecology, and helping people, through effective pedagogy, to grow in solidarity, responsibility and compassionate care” (no. 210).

Implications

Implications: Resources

Environmental Sustainability Getting Started Guide: A Resource from the Catholic Health Association and Practice Greenhealth

Implications: Operations

Implications: Advocacy

• National carbon pollution standard (Clean Power Plan)

• Green Climate Fund

http://www.catholiccincinnati.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/FC_CMYK.jpg

Implications: Advocacy

Implications: Education

• Medical school curricula

• Undergraduate and graduate programs in bioethics and health care ethics

• Continuing education programs for all health care professionals

Implications: Creation Care Teams

https://goo.gl/gCz3lNhttp://

www.catholicclimatecovenant.org/partners/creation_care_teams

Implications: St. Francis Pledge

•Pray, Act, Advocate

•CatholicClimateCovenant.org

Catholic Climate Covenant

Conclusion

•dandileo@catholicclimatecovenant.org•www.CatholicClimateCovenant.org