How Catholic School Made Me an Environmentalist

With the Trump administration’s decision to pull out of the Paris Climate agreement looming overhead like a big dark cloud that is going to kill us all, I’ve been thinking a lot about what makes me feel a personal sense of responsibility when it comes to the environment and protecting our planet.

I drove by a billboard the other day that had big red lettering with flames around it that read: “Learn the Truth” with a phone number beneath. The imagery showed the proverbial silhouettes of ape evolving into man against a backdrop of the earth. It had a big firey red “X” through it (what is it with these people and fire...an ironic sign of things to come as a result of climate denying perhaps?). These billboards always make me chuckle a little bit. Not because they are funny - in fact, I find it terrifying that those people exist. But because the reason they cite in their denial of climate and evolutionary science is the exact same reason I have for believing in it: my religion.

I’m Catholic. I’m what one of my high school theology teachers might call a “Cafeteria Catholic” but still, I consider myself to be Catholic. I don’t adhere or agree with many positions taken by the church but I enjoy the ritual associated with being Catholic. I don’t go to Mass every Sunday but I hit the major holidays and the Sundays when I feel like I could use a little extra good karma in my life or when my parents are visiting me. I went to 15 years of Catholic school. Preschool through 12th grade. It probably ruined me for the outside world, but is also something I feel supremely lucky to have experienced in my formative years.

When it comes to Catholic schools, most people think: strict rules, plaid skirts, questionable methods of discipline and very conservative thinking. You probably don’t think conservation thinking or that those crucifix laden classrooms double as a breeding ground for a little army of environmental activists. Yet it was within the highly structured, rigid walls of the appropriately straight-edged rectangular red-brick building of Corpus Christi School in Elsmere, Delaware that I first learned the importance of protecting the environment. No, importance isn’t the right word. In Catholic school it was more than that - it was a responsibility placed on us, even as second graders; it was “you better recycle or else”; it was “You like going outside and playing in the grass at recess? Well, you better show God you’re thankful by taking care of it - or else”; it was “if you don’t buy a environmental club tshirt you’re going to have to wear your uniform on the special earth dress down day and everyone will know that you want to kill the rainforest”; it was good old fashioned Catholic guilt and played to our longing to fit in.  I’m not saying it was the best way to teach environmentalism - but it worked. And it was drilled into us, Every. Single. Day.

Part of this environmental advocacy was, as is tradition in the Catholic faith, through a daily recitation of words in prayer:

Lord we praise you for Mother Earth, 

which You have wonderfully given to us.

We ask You to fill our minds, 

With knowledge of this Earth

So that we may respect what You have given us

And preserve it for those who come after us. 

Amen. 

 Environmental activism was literally indoctrinated in us at 5 years old. And thank God.  

This prayer makes the connection between “knowledge” and “respect”. The more you know, the more respect or appreciation you can have for something. Often I feel like climate science denial comes down to a rejection of knowledge and a disrespect for those who do take the time to “know”. Whether due to fear or blind faith, I don’t believe that the people who put up that billboard rejecting science was put up by malicious people. They are using an interpretation of their religion to justify their actions (or inactions) and might not have no real desire to “know” at all. They just believe. Belief is not the same as knowledge. Knowledge can lead to scary questions, it can destroy preconceived notions and stir controversy where none had previously existed. It’s the harder course than just believing. If we make a conscious effort to know, we can make a better effort to respect.  

Look I’m not saying that my parochial school upbringing radicalized me or was perfect. It’s not like I’m out fighting every day for the environment. But it did lay the groundwork for me to at least feel a certain amount of responsibility for the earth and an inherent curiosity about the world around me. It gives me a reason to believe that not only is climate change real, but that it is our responsibility as inhabitants of this earth to learn about it and to protect it.

When Pope Francis handed that climate change encyclical to Trump at the Vatican, it was hardly the first time the Catholics stood up for the environment and recognized humanity's’ role in it. (Although it was a some serious shade thrown by the Pope, mad respect). They’ve been doing it for years, raising tiny armies of plaid-wearing stewards of the earth of which I am still proudly a part.