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EDITORIAL The final piece of public Catholicism falls
into place
Something magnificent. Not just the
Columbia River, but what it now represents in Catholicism.
What occurred with the Catholic bishops wholehearted defense
of the sacredness of the environment in its letter on the Columbia River and
its watershed is that the final piece of public Roman Catholicism for the 21st
century is now in place.
The essence of public Catholicism is, in the final analysis, not
just what the church teaches but what it will defend. By this fresh declaration
of the sacredness of the Columbia River and all the earth, the Northwestern and
Canadian bishops have made clear where the church stands and what the church
will defend on environmental issues.
The accumulated Catholic teaching on environmental integrity is
now an essential part of Catholic Christian belief. Catholics are a bit late to
this battle. But typical of a slow-moving church, once the decision is made it
stays put for a long time.
This isnt triumphalistic. This is service-oriented, not
self-oriented, Catholicism. It is the same Catholicism, on a larger scale, as
that which built the parochial schools and local hospitals, the social service
networks and advocacy groups.
The net result of the Columbia River pastoral, however, is that
Catholicism now challenges the world with the three mainstays of its public
stance:
- Life issues -- the seamless garment that stretches from
opposing abortion to opposing euthanasia and the death penalty;
- dignity issues -- peace and social justice, and especially
economic justice, the need for work, for jobs, defending the poor against
uncaring laissez-faire multinational capitalism and its global
quasi-governmental mechanisms;
- and now, environmental issues -- the care, nurturing and
defense of creation.
Over the past two decades, public Catholicism has woven all the
life issues into a seamless garment. In the next half century the life, dignity
and environmental issues will be woven into an even larger seamless garment.
Public Catholicism -- post-Reformation, post-Enlightenment, post-Cold War,
post-Second Vatican Council (1962-65) -- will have reshaped itself to serve the
world.
Public Catholicism wants to serve the entire world on behalf of
life in its manifold forms, especially those who cannot rise to their own
defense -- the poor, the oppressed, the marginalized, the ostracized and, yes,
animals, plants, organisms, scenic beauty -- and rivers.
National Catholic Reporter, June 4,
1999
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