Catholic Energy Ethics: Commitments and Criteria

Abstract

Diverse religious worldviews and values construe foundational defenses of life, health, and wellbeing through the richness of their traditional texts, symbols, and rituals, offering a “thick description” of human meaning and purpose that empowers comprehensive ethical direction. The values and commitments that shape a Catholic energy ethic flow from the doctrine of creation, which views all relationships within a covenantal economy of creation and salvation. A Catholic theology of energy is theocentric, oriented to God’s plan of creation, salvation and the wellbeing of creation. A Catholic energy ethic is covenantal, acknowledging that humanity’s unique dignity confers mutual rights and responsibilities to all persons as brothers and sisters. A Catholic energy ethic is social, recognizing that the integral development of persons occurs in the integral ecology of family, community, society, and earth.