(LifeSiteNews) — The Vatican on Friday launched an international project to promote divestment from the mining industry, which generates critical energy and infrastructure resources, to conform with the environmental principles of Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’.
The new platform, devised by the ecumenical Churches and Mining Network, was presented by the Holy See at a Vatican press conference as a way to encourage “ethical coherence” in investments, according to the view that mining is harmful to local communities and the environment.
Cardinal Fabio Baggio described the mining divestment platform as a moral imperative linked to the care of the earth, in harmony with the encyclical Laudato Si’, according to InfoVaticana. He called the initiative “an act of consistency with our faith (and) with the defense of human dignity.”
Lamenting the negative social and environmental impacts of mining around the world, Baggio went so far as to argue that we must rethink our current economic model. The implications of his suggestion are enormous, since mining supplies the energy sources and building blocks for modern civilization. Fuel, steel, electronics, batteries, buildings, and roads all depend on mining.
During the conference, Cardinal Álvaro Ramazzini denounced a gold and silver mine in Guatemala for harming the environment while providing few benefits for the locals and the inequitable distribution of profits.
“Not everything legal is just,” said Ramazzini. He appealed to the idea of “integral ecology” developed by Pope Francis in Laudato Si’, which “by definition does not exclude human beings,” as Francis wrote, but does not clearly honor humans’ rights as masters of their environment, as expressed by God in His command to human beings to “subdue” the earth (Genesis 1:28).
Brazilian Bishop Vicente Ferreira went a step above his confreres by rejecting the idea of “green capitalism,” suggesting that profit-driven activity such as mining cannot be done in an environmentally friendly manner.
Indigenous Aymara leader Yolanda Flores from Peru testified to concerns about potential toxic runoff from nearby mines into local drinking water sources. She called for a review of the impacts of mining and accountability for those responsible.
“The big question is: Who finances this? Who provides the money to poison us?” said Flores.
Pope Francis named mining as a source of harmful environmental impact in his encyclical Laudato Si’, as well as in various talks. In 2019 he said during a “Mining for the Common Good” meeting that “we need to ensure that mining activities lead to the integral human development of each and every person and of the entire community.”
While it is reasonable to regulate mining in such a way that local communities are not harmed by toxic extractions and runoff, a call for wholesale divestment from mining companies poses economic problems on a much larger scale. Substantial mining cutbacks would threaten to impede the day-to-day functioning of whole societies.
The divestment project echoes calls to divest from fossil fuels by the Laudato Si’ Movement, a global movement inspired by Laudato Si’ which seeks to achieve the so-called “ecological conversion” coined by Francis, and “full sustainability.” The movement seeks to stop new fossil fuel projects in support of a global phase-out of fossil fuels, which are also criticized in Laudato Si’.
Bishop Athanasius Schneider has condemned this concept of “ecological conversion” as being “an expression of pure naturalism … there is no supernatural vision, or a very vacant supernatural vision.”
“Ecological conversion is an abuse of this concept of conversion itself,” said Schneider, since conversion “is firstly used by God in Revelation to convert from sin. To convert from being away from God.”
Contrary to Laudato Si’s claims, burning fossil fuels is beneficial where the CO2 emitted by fossil-fueled power plants promotes plant growth, increases food production, and increases the water-use efficiency and drought resistance of plants. Fossil fuels also prove to be reliable and low-cost sources of energy, and are used to produce fertilizers and pesticides, which are essential for food production.
The environmental and climate alarmism promoted under the pontificates of Francis and Leo, including the move against mining, ironically have been exploited to push policies which would ultimately harm human beings by throttling economic development.
