How can we reconcile Laudato si’ with nature red in tooth and claw?
Let us prey? Views of nature as an idealised model of ‘balance’ overlook discomfiting realities of competition and predation
Alamy/BlickWinkel
The language of harmony and balance that runs through Catholic Social Teaching must come to terms with the preying, plundering and devouring that dominates Creation
Last March, I took my students into the fields of the World Hunger Relief Farm in Waco, Texas. We found vestiges of the autumn and winter plantings – spinach, kale and carrots – and some recently sown crops such as broccoli, peas and beans. Together, the students, my fellow teacher and I got on our hands and knees and examined the soil. It was after recent rain, so the ground was moist, and the dirt lodged under our nails and stuck to our fingers.
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