A Critical Look at the Catholic Response to the Gulf Oil Spill

In the MOTU PROPRIO On The Apostleship Of The Sea by Pope John Paul II, the Pope said as to the people that are to be ministered too in many ways by this Apostleship

b) maritime personnel: 1. seafarers, 2. those who are usually on shipboard because of work; 3. those who work on oil rigs; 4. pensioners retired from the aforesaid jobs; 5. students of maritime academies; 6. those who work in ports.

First let me note that I have a very positive view of Apostleship to the Sea and the work they do. I am also thankful for the very under appreciated work that the both the Apostleship to the Sea and various parts of the Catholic Church are doing. They are doing this by direct aid and ministry and being advocates for PARTS at least of their flock as to economic issues. I would suggest donating a lot if you have means to these organizations.

The Bishop that heads the U.S. operation is the Bishop of Savannah J. Kevin Boland . He went with a message on You Tube that on the whole is VERY VERY good but in which I think could be improved. However it is a short YOU Tube message and not a major address on the crisis. I understand that.

See a overview of that talk here at 2010 The Gulf Oil Spill -- a Catholic Response.

When I read this and various other Catholic and Protestant responses I do wonder what the tone would be if Jesus and Apostles had been Oil Rig workers and roughnecks instead of Fishermen like most of the apostles were at the time,.

One gets a sense one class of people are involved in a good activity and others are involved in a dirty but sadly necessary business. See Our Addiction to Foreign Oil and Oil Spill Blame. There are countless other articles that in my view are a tad simplistic viewing this crisis.

I am not sure of the theology or logic behind this. Maybe it was because Jesus fished!!

Now this is not to let BP or the oil industry off the hook. Indeed as to many environmental problems in Louisiana the oil industry has some blame. However I hate to break it too folks even though fishermen are viewed as the "Good guys" in all this some of their practices have had harmful effects as well from the marsh to the sea.

In what I think is overall a good message by the Bishop the above article says:

Bishop Boland delves deeper into the environmental justice aspect of the disaster with a quote from Pope Benedict's 2010 World Day of Peace Message: " ... the issue of environmental degradation challenges us to examine our life-style and the prevailing models of consumption and production, which are often unsustainable from a social, environmental and even economic point of view."In other words, the Church urges an examination of conscience at a personal and cultural level. How did this disaster occur? Why was there such a pressing need for oil that we jeopardized our own environment to obtain it?

How has my own consumption contributed to this? How can we better serve the environment in our energy production and use?But the Catholic response to the oil spill drills down (forgive the usage) even deeper into the Church's teaching. Having already covered prayer, solidarity, charitable giving and environmental justice, the missing piece of the puzzle is social justice. That's why, at a June 12 meeting, the Subcommittee for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development -- the anti-poverty program of the U.S. bishops -- approved up to $300,000 in out-of-cycle grants for efforts to assist those affected by the oil spill.

To understand the purpose of these grants, it's important first to look at the mission of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, which is to promote work that empowers the poor to break out of poverty themselves by attacking the root causes of poverty.

In this case, communities of fishermen along the Gulf Coast are threatened with poverty as their livelihood is wiped out by the spill. Fortunately, they have assistance from Catholic Charities and others to help them in the short term. But in the long term, their livelihoods will depend on being able to navigate the labyrinth of government for funding, engaging in cooperative developments and other practices to ensure that work is distributed equitably among fishermen and, ultimately, restoring the Gulf so that they can all work again.

Now as to the environment there are a lot of things left out here as to Louisiana and the gulf.

The massive Gulf dead zone caused in part by farming practices in the Midwest that resulst in a massive dead zone in the Gulf hurts a lot. However rarely do we hear that the ability to feed ourselves examined in the land language of " life-style and the prevailing models of consumption and production, which are often unsustainable from a social, environmental and even economic point of view." Again farming good oil bad.

In Louisiana we have a huge Coastal erosion problems. This is partly the result of making the nations's largest highway , the Mississippi River, a canal instead of a river that changes direction and deposits needed soil in the wetlands.

Yet I am not hearing the language of "life-style and the prevailing models of consumption and production, which are often unsustainable from a social, environmental and even economic point of view." as to the fact that we do this so people are not killed in massive floods, that cities are protected, that farmland is gained, and land is provided so people can have homes. However as to oil it is the evil.

In other words the issues down here are complex!! I think part of the problem is that Catholic leadership really has no idea of the complexity and seems to have no clue about the working of the oil industry. This is not good. Especially in a land under siege in one of the most Catholic areas of the country where one in three jobs are directly related to the Oil and Natural Gas Industry. Many of these jobs are MARITIME RELATED!!

Which brings us to the subject of planned moratorium on offshore drilling!!



The above statement released on the United States Bishops media blog says:

To understand the purpose of these grants, it's important first to look at the mission of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, which is to promote work that empowers the poor to break out of poverty themselves by attacking the root causes of poverty. In this case, communities of fishermen along the Gulf Coast are threatened with poverty as their livelihood is wiped out by the spill. Fortunately, they have assistance from Catholic Charities and others to help them in the short term. But in the long term, their livelihoods will depend on being able to navigate the labyrinth of government for funding, engaging in cooperative developments and other practices to ensure that work is distributed equitably among fishermen and, ultimately, restoring the Gulf so that they can all work again.


Well that is all great. I do notice again a dynamic , after saying the necessary prayers for the men who lost their lives in the explosion, that the oil rig workers and all those associated with this industry are left out.

When one gets to Louisiana one does not notice this. They are all mentioned together. If one wants to see REAL poverty wait till a good many people in the oil industry are thrown out of work. That is one reason in very Catholic towns on Coastal Louisiana there are huge rallies to stop some very possible ill conceived moves.

This is going on all over the very Catholic Louisiana but it seems both as to secular leadership and religious leadership this is going unnoticed. In Louisiana there is no divide between fishermen and the people in the various facets of the oil industry.

There I would hope that Catholics that are taking a leading role in this issue would listen very closely to the leadership and lay Catholics on the ground in such places as the Diocese of Biloxi, the Archdiocese of New Orleans, the Dicoese of baton Rouge, the Diocese of Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux , the Diocese of Lafayette, the Diocese of Lake Charles, the Diocese of Beaumont, and the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston.

I think it crucial that an American Catholic viewpoint and plan of action must considered the voices in the above Diocese so people can get a full picture of what is going on and how to deal with it..

Now this is again not a slam on Bishop Boland. In fact I don't think he is slamming the entire oil industry at all. He and Bishop's conference that has now found even more on his plate. We must and can protect the environment as we work in these various industries. However I do hope that the people realize that the Bishop's mandate under his Apostleship of the Ship , and the national Bishops Office includes many more people than just fishermen as to this crisis and all must listen and be their advocate too.

Last but not least. It should be noted that by law a great deal of future revenue from offshore drilling will be put into projects to restore the Louisiana coast. This project is estimated to cost around 100 billion dollars over the long term. If there is no off shore drilling to put it bluntly there will be no funds and thus no coast at all in twenty years. This needs to be heard.