Most Holy Father,

Thank you for saying NO to power and YES to love in so many beautiful and radical ways. As a non-practicing Catholic, your example has stirred my hope for the future of the church and the world.

I am writing with a simple and humble appeal as you research and write the Encyclical on the Environment, that, included in all of the approaches and ideas you will bring forth, you consider three important and difficult aspects of the issue. I believe that you are the world leader most capable of making shifts that are essential to the current welfare of humanity and the planet and of bridging the realms of social justice, Christianity, and ecological healing so that many millions of people are able to move into a new mode of living and wholeness.

First, I begin with the severe impact that centuries of fall-redemption theology and the belief in original sin have taken on the worldview of the Western world and, more recently, the global earth community. I have come to understand that a deep belief in the brokenness of the self from the moment we are born creates a negative expectation of our capacities as individuals and as a species. Fall redemption theology starts us out harming and abusing the earth and each other; requiring salvation (through the church?) that most humans view as undesirable, uncertain, or difficult to attain; and expecting bad things from most people most of the time because that is their nature. Much more helpful is an evolutionary mindset that we are evolving towards the highly-conscious, God-infused beings that we feel called to be as a species (see Teilhard de Chardin and Thank God for Evolution by Michael Dowd), that we are awakening into wholeness, not because that wholeness was lost, but because it was in its infancy. To understand ourselves as people capable of highly moral choices and luminous possibilities and that we do not have to overcome some massive moral brokenness to achieve those possibilities is essential in reclaiming our place in the earth. I am saying that a central tenet of Catholicism and of Christianity has become a huge stumbling block in moving toward the social and earth justice that you envision. It has infected even the most sincere environmentalists and their organizations; the solutionary mindset of love, ease, cooperation, openness, devotion, and communion between all humans is not logically possible where original sin and necessary salvation stand in the way.

Secondly, the church has thought of its role toward the earth as one of subjugation and dominion, and, somewhat less egregiously, as stewardship. These beliefs set us apart as a species with the belief in a God-appointed right to use the earth as a resource for our own ends. I know that you are deeply aware of the abuses, and that you see this exploitation as “the sin of our time.” Thank you for your eyes to see; I cannot begin to express the gratitude that I feel for this awareness. In this area, though, again, long-held beliefs in the church have impacted the unconscious values of civilization as a whole. Whether one sees the earth as a gift from God for humans to use or not, the fact remains that “the environment” is not separate from us. We are the environment. We talk about it as if it is an object that we can hold in our hands or look at and discuss from a distance. Yet, every person is comprised of elements that were once food, once our mother’s bodies, once leaves, forests, animals, rivers, clouds, mushrooms, hurricanes and stars. As humans, we understand that each of us is the subject of our own, others’, and God’s love and attention; when will we begin to speak with the understanding that every being—from animals to trees, rocks, rivers, mountains, and fish—is also a subject at the center of its own realm and in relationships that form and attract it? (See The Great Work by Thomas Berry) And the truth is that whatever we do to the world around us, we are doing to ourselves, not just from a sappy “do unto others” perspective, but from the perspective of atoms and elements as well. From an entirely selfish perspective, it is we who are in danger, not the environment; time and again, the earth and her systems have done what is necessary to respond to insult and assault and we are not immune to the great natural forces of drought, ice, wind, flood, fire, blight, disease, and extinction that are all part of her own natural immune response. It is our hubris and greed that sets us apart, not our humanity, in thinking we will always be able to manage and control her; but we know from history and from science that we cannot. The way we talk about “the environment” does much to impact the views of others; it affirms our separateness, or alternatively, speaks of our interbeing and community with all of life, and affirms our connection and belonging.

Thirdly, and finally, I want to express my understanding of the deep bind you are in regarding the overpopulation crisis, the use of birth control, and the doctrine of papal infallibility. Hans Kung stated that “THE ONLY way to solve the problem of contraception is to solve the problem of infallibility.” I know that you know this. We stand at a tipping point, where the earth’s population could peak at 9 billion or at 12 billion people, neither of which is tenable or even close to reasonable from an ecological perspective. But the additional 3 billion people that uncontrolled birth rates may produce without the limitation of family size is simply a horror –in terms of human and non-human suffering and long-lasting ecological devastation — that is difficult to imagine. Every feeling human agrees that children are a blessing from God, they are natural, and they are good. But they are that AFTER they are born; it is before children are conceived that we have the ability to impact the population issue. Even if you cannot promote abortive technologies, such as IUDs and the abortion pill, condoms and other barrier methods are still around 90% effective, which is better than nothing! Regarding abstinence, women in developing countries and those in religion-driven households often do not have the personal power to say “no” to a sexual partner and may be so impoverished that additional children are seen as necessary for food production and old-age care. In these situations, the children often do not receive educations, in particular girls, who are the ones we need to end the population crisis. Experts have come to understand that empowering a woman economically and with reproductive technology are the most profound ways to influence family size. When will the Catholic Church become a voice for reason and ecological healing instead of an institution that is dedicated to its own preservation while it contributes to overpopulation and suffering, just like the other mega corporations that we see wreaking havoc on the environment?

At this critical time, when we surely could be ushering in the doom and devastation of our species and planet or the healing realm of God, I beg you to reconsider the long-held beliefs of the church that reflect its desire to maintain and bolster power and hierarchy and to act with justice and a prophetic voice for the wellbeing of the entire earth community.

Your humble servant,

Karyn Wolfe