In his new book, The Minding of Planet Earth, Cahal Daly argues that caring for the Earth is integral to our Christian vocation. He talks to Sean McDonagh about sustaining the planet, global warming ? and population control

CARDINAL Cahal Daly is known for being passionate about many things, especially peace in his native Northern Ireland. Listening to him speak about justice, peace and the integrity of creation at the launch of his new book, The Minding of Planet Earth, it was obvious that this enthusiasm encompasses these three aspects of the contemporary Christian vocation. Although the cardinal is slightly stooped now, his voice remains full of conviction and, having read the book, I am impressed with the clarity of his thought. The Minding of Planet Earth addresses a very serious subject ? the future of humankind and our planet. But serious subjects ought not to exclude a sense of humour. It came through when he pointed out the seven survivors from his ordination class of 1941 ?were all living with various degrees of decrepitude?! In his case the flesh might be weak, but the spirit is still strong.

?I wrote this book?, the cardinal told me, ?because primarily I see myself as a pastor. That fact does not change even though I am now retired. Given my experience teaching philosophy in Queen?s University, Belfast for 20 years, and my years as a bishop, I thought I may have something to contribute to this important debate.

?I believe we must continue to bring the Christian message into the mainstream of public discourse.?

He is aware that critics might say that the Churches have nothing to offer the debate about science and religion, ecology and social justice. In the book he refutes this and demonstrates convincingly that Christianity has many insights that can help enrich contemporary discourse and action.

He acknowledges that many scientists and other well-educated people take it for granted that the Church is the enemy of science and that faith is incompatible with reason. Their view is that the Church is so concerned about the next world that the concerns of this life are not important. But the golden thread running right through the book is that the relationship between religion and science ought to be complementary rather than hostile. Daly decries the chasm that has opened up between science, religion and philosophy; for him, the ?how? questions of science and the ?why? questions of religion and philosophy are not inimical to each other but rather complement each other.

In his conversation with me he was adamant about that. ?Science and religion, in their own and distinct ways, can throw light on the meaning and value of our existence and experience.?

He is convinced that this is particularly important in today?s world where hunger, famine, injustice and ecological destruction are so widespread. ?We seem to be sleep-walking our way towards disaster.? These are strong words and he did not utter them lightly.

Daly is well aware that there are no simple answers, and develops his argument by a play on the word ?minding?. In the first place he writes of God?s mindfulness of the Earth and, secondly, that we have a human and Christian responsibility to participate in God?s ?minding? of the Earth. God?s mindfulness of the Earth is evident in the traces of his creative mind which the intelligibility of the universe and world discloses to us.

For the cardinal, humans are the mind and heart of the universe. ?It is only in humans?, he says, ?that the universe can reflect upon itself and celebrate the wonders of the creation and the exuberance of life.?

There is a widespread belief that the scientific revolution of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, associated with the discoveries of Copernicus and Galileo, dethroned humanity from the centre of the universe. But Daly argues that such a view shows little understanding of medieval philosophy or art. In any case, human significance is not to be measured in its spatio-temporal dimension but rather in humanity?s ability to make sense of the universe. As he puts it: ?Surely the sciences of astronomy and geology which reveal these ?great processes? are themselves discoveries of the human mind and show its supremacy over the non-mental universe.?

Perhaps the most notorious clash between science and religion was the condemnation of Galileo by the Inquisition in 1633. At the time many people in the philosophical-scientific community also supported the theory of the centrality and immobility of the Earth. However, by the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the trial of Galileo was deeply resented by the scientific community and was often used as an example of how the Catholic Church was opposed to science. As late as the 1960s the Vatican was still trying to discredit Galileo. It was to be nearly 40 years before the Church made reparation when Pope John Paul II apologised for the Galileo affair. According to Daly, this apology by the Pope augurs well for more constructive and mutually enriching dialogue between the Church and science.

Not everyone would be as optimistic. Publication of The Minding of Planet Earth in Ireland coincided with a letter to the Irish Times from an Irish priest decrying the condemnation by the Irish bishops of some of the ideas that Fr Sean Fagan SM is alleged to have advanced in his book Does Morality Change? This is a long way from the spirit of dialogue which Cardinal Daly is promoting.

So what should our contemporary dialogue be about? For Daly, it is crucial that the Church and society must talk about work, social justice and ecology if we are to build a more just and sustainable society. As he puts it: ?Because of the primacy of the person, both capital and labour should cooperate for the good of each and for the common good of the community.?

The real problem, however, is that the wellbeing of the biosphere is not part of the equation, and humans are destroying the air, water, soils and fellow creatures of our planet in an extensive and, often, irreversible way.

I put it to Daly that even the Second Vatican Council, which was undoubtedly the major achievement of the Church in the twentieth century, reflects a ?domination of nature? theology. The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes) embodies a positive, liberating vision of life that refuses to seal off religious issues from the rest of human affairs. One cannot, however, argue that it is grounded in an ecological vision of reality.

Daly?s response was that people have focused on the mandate to ?subdue? the Earth (Gen.1:26-28) but have forgotten the command to ?keep and till the Earth? in Gen. 2:15. Ecology, in the Christian tradition, must go hand in hand with work for peace and justice.

I continued to probe this theme by putting two propositions to him, one from the zoologist Colin Tudge, and another from Sir David King, Britain?s chief scientist. Tudge writes that, ?The task of humankind is not simply to create a world that is good for us, but to arrange this Earth to accommodate our own reasonable needs and those of our fellow creatures?. King believes that global warming is the most serious problem that humans have had to face in the past 5,000 years. Without the slightest hesitation the cardinal replied, ?I have no problem accepting both of those positions. That is why I wrote the book.?

But such a paradigm shift will have huge implications for science, philosophy, law and moral theology. In future any debate about human population levels will have to include some reflections on the finite nature of the planet and the needs other creatures have for their habitat.

The cardinal finds the wastefulness of our throw-away society particularly upsetting. ?I have always felt that moderation in our lifestyles is imperative,? his voice rising and becoming more animated as he continues, ?There is no excuse for the way in which we waste resources and spend as if there were no limit to the world?s resources. We must see the world in God?s way. God is concerned about the whole of creation. He has given us a mandate to share in his caring of it.? Cardinal Daly is convinced that ?the environmental problem is more serious than the international terrorist problem?.

The cardinal recalled his own youth in rural County Antrim. ?It was a culture which was environmentally friendly. Periodically fields were set aside to recuperate and recover their natural fertility. Crops were rotated. It was culture which abominated waste. It gave great priority to saving water, food and money because they were scarce. That was a culture deeply influenced by faith and concern for nature.?

While he would not want to return to some of the harsh conditions of such a society, Daly believes that we need to re-learn how to live joyful and satisfying lives without constantly consuming. He gives credit to the World Council of Churches for the leading role it has taken in trying to make Christians aware of the fact that we must work for peace, justice and the integrity of creation. He says, also, that the model adopted by the Australian bishops has much to commend it. They published A New Earth: the environmental challenge in 2002, talked about caring for the Earth as a Christian vocation, and have since also produced work on the problems facing the Great Barrier Reef and the condition of the Murray-Darling Basin.

For Cardinal Daly, the message of Christ to live simple lives is now a global imperative. He is to be congratulated because, as far as I know, he is the first cardinal to address the ecological crisis in a coherent and clear-sighted way.

Many would feel that an 86-year-old priest might be focused completely on the ?next? life. Not so Cardinal Daly. He put it this way at the launch of his book in Dublin: ?I would love to be young again and able to face these challenges of the modern world.?

Sean McDonagh is a priest and environmentalist. His latest book The Death of Life: extinction is forever is published this month by Columba Press. The Minding of Planet Earth, by Cardinal Cahal B. Daly, is published by Veritas.