~by Susi Pittman

There are seven tenets to the Roman Catholic Church’s teachings on social justice. They are:

• Life and Dignity of the Human Person
• Call to Family, Community and Participation
• Rights and Responsibilities
• Option for the Poor and Vulnerable
• The Dignity of Workers and the Rights of Workers
• Solidarity
• Care of Creation

You can find a definitive description of each at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) website.

My concern is with the seventh and last tenet, Care of Creation. What does that mean? In its description at the USCCB web site, it specifies respecting and protecting our planet and living our faith in relationship to creation and its creatures. But, really, what does that mean?

Respect is pretty easy; we all know what it is to have it! It is defined as the condition of being esteemed or honored.

Protecting is another easy concept! It is defined as to defend or guard from attack, invasion, loss, annoyance, insult, etc.; cover or shield from injury or danger.

But, now we have the responsibility of living our faith in relationship to “the entire created world. That’s the one that you have to think on a moment.

My answers come from the Catechism of the Catholic Church which is a “wellspring” of truth.

In it we read that creation was called forth from God’s goodness and shares in that goodness, and God addressed creation to man. God loves what He has made and He asks man to cooperate with Him to accomplish His plan which is towards a perfection yet to be attained, something that all of creation is destined for. Man is asked to live in a cooperative effort of respecting and protecting the family of creation with and for God, whose “divine providence” and grace ultimately will bring a perfected end. (1)

This is echoed in Sacred Scripture, Romans 8: 19-21:

For the eager longing of creation awaits the revelation of the sons of God. For creation was made subject to vanity—not by its own will but by reason of him who made it subject—in hope, because creation itself also will be delivered from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the sons of God.

And again in Romans 8:28:

Now we know that for those who love God all things work together unto good.

The Church teaches us that each creature that God created possesses its own particular goodness…receiving God to the extent that it is capable. Man is called upon to RESPECT this goodness by responding to the family of creation as God would. (2)

The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us in the Nicene Creed that when we say,

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and of earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

the terms heaven and earth and things visible and invisible means all that exists. It goes on the say,

It also indicates the bond, deep within creation, that both unites heaven and earth and distinguishes one from the other. (3)

Man is the summit of creation, because God gave man a soul, something unlike the spirit or soul given to the rest of creation. (4) This soul, allowed for a rational free-will, giving man the choice to choose to love and praise God. The animals and the rest of creation do not share in that, as God created the non human creation to be a reflection of His love, ordered to His glory both here and into the hereafter. (5)

By giving man this free will to be the caretaker of God’s creation, it is ultimately man who will determine here on earth, either the success or the failure of that which exists in the natural realm.

So, living our faith as Catholics is a really BIG order!! One we need to start taking seriously by starting at home, in our back yards, our neighborhoods and communities. Seek out wholesome, organic and sustainable practices that will certainly unite us with creation in goodness.

Realize that no creature is self-sufficient; we need each other to complete each other in service to one another. Help animals in need, advocate for continued protection of our national parks which offer all of us the wide open spaces, filled with creatures that give glory to God. Support organizations that work to preserve and protect that which has no voice….the non-human creation and creatures.

Working for good in stewardship of all the family of creation will bring about a renewal that will draw heaven to earth!

Start today.

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1. Catechism of the Catholic Church, Page 84, Paragraph 321

2. Catechism of the Catholic Church, Page 88, Paragraph 339

3. Catechism of the Catholic Church, Page

4. Catechism of the Catholic Church, Page 91, Paragraph 357

5. Catechism of the Catholic Church, Page 89, Paragraph 344

Susi Pittman is founder of CatholicStewardsofCreation.com and Owner-President of Twin Oaks Publishing; she is author of Animals in Heaven? Catholics Want to Know!; an advocate for the Florida Catholic Conference; a member of the St. Joseph’s Catholic Council of Women in Jacksonville, Florida; an Associate of the Sisters of St. Joseph, St. Augustine;a member of the Florida Publishers Association, Independent Book Publishers Association, the National Association of Professional Women, the ASPCA, the Humane Society of the United States and the National Audubon society.