Church at An Environmental CrossRoad

John Allen writes…Catholic environmentalism these days seems to be an instinct in search of a cause. One can find impressive traces of awareness, from John Paul II’s 1990 call for “ecological conversion,” to grass-roots initiatives such as the Genesis Farm [1] founded by the Dominican Sisters of Caldwell, N.J. Yet so far no single defining moment has come along to crank up Catholic activism in a way that changes the social and political equation.

If there’s such a turning point taking shape, it may well be in the Amazon rainforest. If Catholicism can’t make a stand in the Amazon, there may not be much hope for it anywhere else.