Tenth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church expresses that the current environmental crisis arose from the human’s exercise of unconditional dominion over material things. Thus, despite the call of the Church towards responsible dominion over the earth’s goods, the opposite happened and the planet was placed in peril. However, another pillar of the Catholic Church’s Social Teachings that could properly help one gain a new perspective of relating to creation is the Principle of Solidarity. In the traditional view, this principle is rooted from the human person’s social nature, respecting each other’s equality in dignity and rights and in respecting one another in their common vocation towards unity and interdependence. In the pronouncements of the recent Popes, the Church now calls all the people of the planet to be in solidarity, not only with one another as human persons, but with the whole of creation. This Principle of Solidarity, therefore, should not anymore be exclusive among human beings but also between human beings and creation. This paper suggests a different way of developing the right relationship with the whole of creation from the ethics of responsible dominion towards the ethics of solidarity and communion. Thus, a model of human and environmental relationships is proposed based on the principle of solidarity and communion.