The Social Doctrine of the Church is a set of teachings of the Magisterium intended to help us interpret the events of our time in the light of the Gospel. In this time marked by the expansion of conflicts, the decline of democracy and the climate crisis, how can the teachings of Pope Francis help us?‘ Thus begins the article written by Father Mauro Bossi SJ, which we have the pleasure of publishing and which offers interesting inputs for thought on the matter of the climate crisis and on how fundamental it is to build communities that are mobilised to make the environmental aspect an issue of justice, participation and democracy.
Born in Italy in 1976 and entered the Society of Jesus in 2006, Father Bossi studied theology in Paris and then moral theology in Rome (Pontifical Gregorian University).
Since 2018 he has been a member of the editorial staff of Aggiornamenti Sociali, also carrying out environmental training. In 2023, he was appointed Delegate for Ecology of the Euro-Mediterranean Province of the Society of Jesus.
By Carla Bellone
Assistant to the Secretary for the Service of the Faith
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The Social Doctrine of the Church is a set of teachings of the Magisterium that aim to help us interpret the events of our time, in the light of the Gospel. At this time marked by the expansion of conflicts, the decline of democracy and climate crisis, how can the teachings of Pope Francis help us? I will refer to two documents: the encyclical letter Laudato si’ (2015) and the apostolic exhortation Laudate Deum (2023), the latter explicitly addressed to the UN Climate Conference held in Dubai.
Two important United Nations assemblies have been held in recent months: in Cali, Colombia, the Convention on Biological Diversity conference to address global biodiversity decline; in Baku, Azerbaijan, the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change conference. At both conferences, the main topic of discussion was finance: how to mobilize financial resources to enable the countries of the Global South the possibility of clean, fossil-free development. Indeed, on this depends the possibility of addressing, on a global scale, the threats of climate change and biodiversity loss. At both conferences, the short-sightedness and selfishness of developed countries prevented an adequate agreement.
The real problem is not simply money but the political situation that makes or does not make these arrangements possible. This is where Laudate Deum, which aspires to restore international politics to its rightful role in establishing just relations among peoples, becomes interesting. Pope Francis denounces the vacuum of politics, that is, the lack of participation of the peoples and their legitimate representatives, in the construction of the future, in a scenario, in which the effects of climate change appear more and more serious and the poorest countries suffer the most severe consequences:
«The world in which we live is collapsing and may be nearing the breaking point. In addition to this possibility, it is indubitable that the impact of climate change will increasingly prejudice the lives and families of many persons […] This is a global social issue and one intimately related to the dignity of human life» (LD 2-3).
«Regrettably, the climate crisis is not exactly a matter that interests the great economic powers, whose concern is with the greatest profit possible at minimal cost and in the shortest amount of time» (LD 13).
«Once and for all, let us put an end to the irresponsible derision that would present this issue as something purely ecological, “green”, romantic, frequently subject to ridicule by economic interests. Let us finally admit that it is a human and social problem on any number of levels» (LD 58).
When a just international policy based on ethics is lacking, two logics and strategies come into play.
The first is to entrust to simple market mechanisms the role of regulating the global common good that would fall to politics; the task of politics is to give space to the interests of the parties involved,
to mediate conflicts, to guarantee the interests of the weakest subjects; in the case of the climate crisis, the weakest subjects par excellence are future generations; it is clear that market mechanisms are unable to represent the interests and rights of the unborn.
The second way is the unilateral initiative of the most violent and unscrupulous politico-military players, who are flouting international law and the United Nations.
In short, we are witnessing a shift from the exercise of power in the truly political sense of the term, that is, the ability of the human community to act together and according to law, to power as the practice of violence, through military or economic means. In this moment, power ultimately belongs to those who have the means to impose their will. Laudato si’ and Laudate Deum describe this logic as the “technocratic paradigm”: the illusion that the common good can be derived from the free play of power relations.
This is the perspective in which we need to put the climate and environmental discourse. We are going through the most serious crisis of multilateralism in our memory. We are experiencing the “third World War in pieces”, as pope Francis has called it. The number of civilian victims of conflicts has tripled in two years (11k in 2021, 33k in 2023). Anything that makes it possible to impose oneself on the enemy, whatever the cost, is being cleared.
Are international climate dialogues the place where hope for dialogue can open, where multilateralism can be rebuilt and renewed? We need to believe that.
«More than saving the old multilateralism, it appears that the current challenge is to reconfigure and recreate it, taking into account the new world situation. I invite you to recognize that many groups and organizations within civil society help to compensate for the shortcomings of the international community, its lack of coordination in complex situations, and its lack of attention to fundamental human rights» (Laudate Deum 37, see also Fratelli tutti 175).
The environment and climate issue is also an issue of democracy and human rights. In 2023, 196 land and environment defenders were killed worldwide, mainly in South America (source: Global Witness). They gave their lives to defend their lands and communities from exploitation and political corruption. But even in Europe and North America, some climate activists face jail time or are already in jail for participating in peaceful protest actions.
Here, how do we Catholics want to exert pressure on politics? We are inside very hard conflicts, and the question is how to be in them as Christians, exercising evangelical nonviolence. But we must assume that the conflict is there and that the most vulnerable in the world are losing. We must also avoid another deception, which is to think that ecological conversion is only on the individual level. Ecological conversion is always community conversion. By building community and mobilizing community we can help make the environmental issue a problem of justice, participation and democracy.
