Abstract:
To find a place in public discussion about the environment, whose emergence and propagation were alien to the interference of any religion, Catholic Church leaders have been formulating their own ecological conception since the papacy of Paul VI. This conception is based on the connection of physical aspects of the environmental crisis with the diagnosis of a moral degradation. The “corrupted” nature is not only “outside” but “inside” the human being. Starting from different diagnoses and meanings, this Catholic ecology ends up colliding, in many aspects, with postulates of secular environmental movements. This article aims to map the formation of this ecological vision from the Catholic official nucleus, analyzing sociologically its points of tension with other environmentalist conceptions.
Keywords:
catholic ecology; environmental movements; morality; rights of nature; public activism