Ecological issues in selected papal documents after the Second Vatican Council

Abstract

There may be different meanings in the word ecology. Ecology means the study of the structure and functioning of nature at different levels of organization. On the other hand, the identification of ecology with environmental protection has led to the emergence of deep ecology. In radical terms, deep ecology recognizes the Earth as a superior value, which leads is the principle of natural-centrism, in contrast to the anthropocentric views that recognize man as the highest value.

The Second Vatican Council in its Constitution Gaudium et spes emphasizes two fundamental issues of science, namely man and the world. The human person is at the center of the Church’s teaching. The unique position of a human being results from his personal dignity.

The social issues suggested by the Council Fathers found their deepening in the teaching of the post-Vatican II popes. Ecological issues in which man occupies a central place found its place in papal teaching even before the end of Vatican II, in particular in the encyclicals of John XXIII. His successors in the See of Peter repeatedly raised social issues in their teaching. Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato si’ is the first papal document devoted entirely to ecology and can be treated as a moral education, which includes the current social teaching of the Church. This is also confirmed by Pope Francis himself when he cites the social encyclicals of his predecessors starting with Rerum novarum Leo XIII and when he quotes state-ments about ecology contained in the documents of bishops’ conferences of vari-ous countries, thus emphasizing that the science of ecology belongs to the entire Catholic Church. The Laudato si’ encyclical, speaking of integral ecology, presents an anthropocentric view, recognizing man as the highest value.