Is it a sin to toss trash out your car window? Do Christians have a moral obligation to recycle their paper, glass and plastics? What about energy consumption? Are the number and length of our daily showers, our use of heating and air conditioning, the gas mileage of our cars, even the use of our cars, our daily consumption of disposable items, of any moral importance whatsoever?

Is all this talk of global warming, climate change, ecological stewardship and care of the environment simply more "politically correct" rhetoric? Does the Church offer any direction about this?

There is significant truth in the statement that Catholic moral teaching is comprised of three indispensable and interwoven threads:

---that every human person is created in the Image of God (Imago Dei) and therefore enjoys at the same time absolute equality and absolute uniqueness;

---that the pursuit of the "common good" is a demand of the baptismal vocation;

---and that the consistent ethic of life, in which every human life is proclaimed sacred from the moment of conception and protected until natural death, is exception-less.

In church teaching these three themes are becoming clearly tied to a growing moral concern about ecological choices and human stewardship of the environment. The Catholic focus on the common good provides a wonderful starting point for moral reflections on every Christian's responsibility for ecological stewardship.

'Due respect for nature'
In January 1990, Pope John Paul II delivered a wonderful message on discipleship and the environment, Peace with God the Creator, Peace with all of Creation. This was the first papal document devoted entirely to ecology and the stewardship of the environment. He makes clear the moral challenge that lies before all people.

"In our day, there is a growing awareness that world peace is threatened…by a lack of the due respect for nature, by the plundering of natural resources and by a progressive decline in the quality of life. The sense of precariousness and insecurity that such a situation engenders is a seedbed for collective selfishness, disregard for others and dishonesty.

"Faced with the widespread destruction of the environment, people everywhere are coming to understand that we cannot continue to use the goods of the earth as we have in the past.... A new ecological awareness is beginning to emerge which, rather than being downplayed, ought to be encouraged to develop into concrete programs and initiatives" (1).

We can find the beginning of this concern with the earth most clearly in the teaching of Pope John XXIII, who made the comment that "all property has a social mortgage." In other words, Catholic social teaching, based on the moral principle of the "common good," makes it clear that private property is not absolute; the earth has been handed over by God into the care of all God's children. The earth belongs to all people, and therefore all of us bear moral responsibility for its careful stewardship. This principle is spelled out in the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

"The goods of creation are destined for the whole human race (n. 2402). The right to private property, acquired or received in a just way, does not do away with the original gift of the earth to the whole of humankind. The universal destination of goods remains primordial, even if the promotion of the common good requires respect for the right to private property…" (n. 2403).

Beyond 'refrain from harm'
What is made clear is that ultimately God is the only absolute owner of the earth, and part of the Christian vocation is to be good stewards of the gift of creation that we enjoy. In fact, the Gospel parable of the silver pieces in Matthew 25: 14-30 can be understood as a statement of God's expectation that disciples are to be careful stewards of the earth.

In that parable, Jesus makes it clear that our moral obligation goes beyond that of simply refraining from harming our environment but includes the positive charge of improving it. Did not the owner take back his money from the servant who simply buried it, and give it to the others who had invested wisely?

It would seem that monitoring our "carbon footprint" (use of fossil fuels, throwaway disposables, etc.) so that we eliminate unnecessary and irresponsible choices is not enough. God is asking, "What are we doing to make the earth an even more hospitable place for all our sisters and brothers sharing the environment with us now and the future generations of our sisters and brothers who will inherit what we leave behind?"

In fact, Christian Disciples need to come face to face with the fact that the thoughtless consumption of the industrialized countries is the biggest burden on the environment. It is time for us to heed the words of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton (died 1821, canonized 1975), who challenged her Daughters of Charity sisters almost two centuries ago, "Let us live more simply so that others can simply live."

In the end, the truth is quite clear: It is not large families in the non-industrialized countries that are putting the environment most at risk, but the large consumption of the comparatively smaller families of the industrialized countries. While the U.S. holds just 4 percent of the world's population it consumes a quarter of the world's raw materials. How many fast food wrappers, plastic shopping bags, and gallons of gas has the average U.S. family used this year compared to the average family in Nepal? Overpopulation is not the most immediate threat to our planet's health, overconsumption is.

The notion of 'interdependence'
One of the most important foundations to the moral imperative of choosing always for the "common good" is the notion of "interdependence." Interdependence means that we accept that every individual is a part of humankind and that every individual is dependent on others and has others dependent on them. Interdependence recognizes "my reliance" on others and "their reliance" on me.

This concept was made very clear by Pope John XXIII in his challenging encyclical Mater et Magistra in which he remarked on the reality of the "multiplication of social relationships." His challenge to recognize our interdependence was so challenging to some in the U.S. (e.g., the late William Buckley) that they accused him of being a "socialist." It was clear that the traditional Catholic understanding of the Gospel value of the "common good" of society didn't fit well with some committed to the ideology of "absolute individualism."

The 20th century emphasis on the Catholic value of "interdependence" was further enhanced by Pope John Paul II in his social encyclicals and his numerous remarks on "solidarity." The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church states, "The Magisterium recognizes that the interdependence among individuals and nations takes on a moral dimension and is the determining factor for relations in the modern world in the economic, cultural, political and religious sense" (n. 442).

The Church is now challenging us to apply the notion of interdependence to our moral responsibility for the good stewardship of the earth. Our individual and social decisions about consumption are inherently moral issues. What we eat, what we wear, what we drive, how and what we throw away, how we produce energy, are moral choices.

Notes the Compendium: "Serious ecological problems call for an effective change of mentality leading to the adoption of new lifestyles in which the quest for truth, beauty, goodness and communion with others for the sake of the common good are the factors that determine consumer choices, savings and investments…. There is a need to break with the logic of mere consumption and promote forms of agricultural and industrial production that respect the order of creation and satisfy the basic human needs of all" (n. 486).

The change of mentality that is essential to good moral discipleship begins with education. It is socially responsible behavior to learn more about our environment and the impact that we make on it as individuals and as a society. How many of us are aware of how our national diet can effect the environment? For example, the hunger for beef in the U.S. has significant consequences. It has long been known that cattle are very inefficient at converting food to meat, yet the majority of grain grown in the U.S. is fed to cattle. The grain that is fed to beef would yield a much higher food value if fed directly to people, almost six times as much per pound. Other animals, like chickens, are actually substantially more efficient at converting grain to meat. Learning about the responsible use of food, energy and transportation are important aspects of our moral growth in making good moral choices regarding our impact on the world.

Challenging our attitude toward consumption is often the next step in our growth in moral consciousness and responsibility about the environment. Each of us need to become morally conscious consumers. This often begins when we learn to ask ourselves before every purchase: "Is this something I need, or is it something that I just want?"

Learning to purchase what we need is an important step in growth in environmental stewardship. How many people have you seen driving huge gas-guzzling SUV's simply to commute to work or do shopping or other errands? How many folks who bought these vehicles really "needed" them? How many items do you have in your home that you bought on impulse and now find little or no use for? How many espresso makers and pannini toasters and other "must have" products that clutter your kitchen and closets will eventually be donated to a second-hand shop or, worse, find themselves in a land fill some day?

'Home and resource for all'
In the end, an authentic understanding of the moral obligation to be a faithful steward of the earth is found when the concepts of common good, interdependence and solidarity of placed in the context of the other two moral themes mentioned above: that every human being is created in God's image and the need to hold to the consistent ethic of life as exception-less.

Perhaps the Catholic vision of environmental stewardship is best summed up in the words of Pope John Paul II, quoted in L'Osservatore Romano, April 9, 1997:

"If humanity today succeeds in combining the new scientific capacities with a strong ethical dimension, it will certainly be able to promote the environment as a home and a resource for all, and will be able to eliminate the causes of pollution and to guarantee adequate conditions of hygiene and health for small groups as well as for vast human settlements.

"Technology that pollutes can also cleanse, production that amasses can also distribute justly, on condition that the ethic of respect for life and human dignity, for the rights of today's generations and those to come, prevails."

Vincentian Father Richard Benson is academic dean and professor of moral theology at St. John's Seminary, Camarillo. His column appears monthly in The Tidings.