Jesuit Journeys
Fall 2007

Social and International Ministries: Protecting Human Life and Caring for God’s Creation

By John Sealey
Provincial Assistant For Social
and International Ministries

At 180 feet below the Creighton University Retreat Center in Griswold, Iowa, the Ogallala Aquifer maintains a constant year-round temperature of 54 degrees. Utilizing a geothermal closed loop system that generates heating in the winter and cooling in the summer, the retreat facility is both a clean and an economical system.

“There is plenty of heat in the ground to satisfy our needs,” said Director Fr. David Smith, SJ, “We just need to drill down to get it.” The geo-thermal system has dramatically lessened the carbon footprint of the center and will pay for itself in less than seven years. Currently 33 wells are supplying six of the nine buildings at the center with plans for full implementation over the next three years.

This is one example of how the Wisconsin Province is putting care for earth into action. Environmental concern is both an enduring and emerging concern for the Jesuits and friends of the Wisconsin Province. Our longtime ministries alongside the Lakota, Shoshoni and Arapahoe people have helped us to respect nature as the land, sky and waters are so central to the spirituality of native people. Jesuit humanities contemplate the ethical imperatives for environmental justice and our science and engineering departments research applications for cleaner and more sustainable living.

At Creighton Prep, chemistry teacher David Dow has led a student movement collecting recyclables for 30 years. Internationally, our twinned Jesuit provinces are immersed in environmental issues from Eastern Africa (drought/deforestation) to the Kohima Region of India (mega-dams which destroy the biodiversity central to human livelihood) to Ecuador (urbanization).

At Creighton Prep, chemistry teacher David Dow has led a student movement collecting recyclables for 30 years. Internationally, our twinned Jesuit provinces are immersed in environmental issues from Eastern Africa (drought/deforestation) to the Kohima Region of India (mega-dams which destroy the biodiversity central to human livelihood) to Ecuador (urbanization).

Pope Benedict also has noted the disproportional suffering of the poor in light of climate disruption and he has also called for a greater commitment to fight Amazon rain forest destruction as well as factory farming. In “Sacramentum Caritatis” Pope Benedict writes, “The justified concern about threats to the environment present in so many parts of the world …commits us to working responsibly for the protection of Creation.”

Too often, the needless divisions between Catholic “Pro-Life” and “Pro-Justice” groups have kept us from being as effective as we could be. However, on this issue of climate change and environmental injustice (emissions, pollution and toxins), there is remarkable common ground. The US Catholic offices of Pro-Life and Social Development and World Peace have held high level consultations on environmental justice. They realize that those who are paying the heaviest cost for damage to the environment are the unborn, mothers, children and the poor.

The scientific community no longer debates the fact that climate disruption is caused by human activities. The only remaining debate regards projections and magnitudes of future warming. In 2005, the U.S. and 10 other National Academies of Science stated, “The scientific understanding of climate change is now sufficiently clear to justify nations taking prompt action. It is vital that all nations identify cost-effective steps that they can take now, to contribute to substantial and long-term reduction in net global greenhouse gas emissions.”

The U.S. has been and is a major player accountable for 27% of accumulated emissions since 1750, but we are slow to sign onto international agreements such as the Kyoto Accord. We fall into the short-sighted myth which pits ecological concern versus economic growth. On the contrary, companies are discovering that cutting emissions saves money and lessens the potentially damaging social impacts of pollution related lawsuits.

Scientifically, there is a 30-year lag between today’s emissions and the ultimate warming which is caused, so in this regard we cannot simply reverse global warming. And since CO2 has a 100 year life span in the atmosphere, there is undoubtedly much warming still in the pipeline. However, if we act very soon we can avoid dangerous tipping points which could slide us toward irreversible climate change. For example, the melting of the Greenland ice sheet would raise sea levels by 20 feet and the melting of tundra permafrost would release large amounts of methane increasing the burden of warming pollutants by a factor of 10.

In their recent document, “Faithful Stewards of God’s Creation,” the U.S. Bishops invoke John Paul II reminding us, “At its core, global climate change is not about economic theory or political platforms, nor about partisan advantage or interest group pressures. It is about the future of God’s creation and the one human family. It is about protecting both ‘the human environment’ and the natural environment. It is about our human stewardship of God’s creation and our responsibility to those who come after us.”