Catholic Social Teaching, Laudato Sí, and the Green New Deal

Abstract

The Green New Deal (GND) is a very ambitious mission statement for a just transition to a low carbon economy whose starting point was not perceived political possibility but the boundaries of the climate system, for a functioning society, as defined by the scientific community. This paper compares modern Catholic Social Teaching, especially Laudato Sí, the ecological encyclical of Pope Francis, to the GND. It argues that the GND is consonant with all the relevant principles of Catholic Social Teaching: human dignity, solidarity/common good/participation, option for the poor, rights of workers, subsidiarity, economic development for the poorest countries of the world, private property and the universal destination of all goods, and peace.|Keywords: Green New Deal, Catholic Social Teaching, Laudato Sí, Pope Francis, climate change, subsidiarity