Austrian nun, "Justice begins with the recognition of ecological debt"

Head of the "Mission and Social Affairs" department of the Austrian Conference of Religious Orders calls for structural responsibility - Dicastery for Integral Development calls for comprehensive debt relief and reform of the international financial system

The Austrian nun Sister Anneliese Herzig calls for an ethical, political, and economic rethink regarding the indebtedness of poorer countries. The occasion is the recent Vatican document "Holy Year 2025: Remission of the Ecological Debt," in which the Dicastery for Integral Development calls not only for far-reaching debt relief for the poorest countries, but also for the recognition of ecological debt as a moral obligation of industrialized nations. Sr. Herzig, head of the Mission and Social Affairs Sector at the Conference of Religious Orders, sees this as a call for structural responsibility and a reversal of the mere alms mentality.

"Justice begins with the recognition of ecological debt," Sr. Herzig summarizes the Vatican document in a statement on the religious orders' website. The ecological costs of decades of resource consumption by rich countries in the global North are currently primarily borne by the countries of the global South. In addition to financial debt, this represents a structural burden that massively hinders social and economic development.

Crushing debt burden

"Debt service – debt repayment plus interest payments – often exceeds spending on health and education. A vicious circle," the nun summarizes the dilemma. The financial indebtedness of many countries and the ecological debt created by decades of externalizing environmental costs by industrialized nations must be considered together. Both are expressions of an unjust system that must be reformed. The goal must be an international financial architecture that combines poverty reduction and environmental protection.

Pope Leo XIV also emphasizes the need for structural changes in his message of peace: It is unacceptable that "nations already burdened by international debt should also bear the burden of the ecological debt of more developed countries." Without fundamental reforms, however, existing inequalities will become even more entrenched.

Sister Herzig believes that religious orders, in particular, are called upon to engage in this debate: "We are called upon to raise awareness of these connections, to make our international ties visible, and to engage prophetically in social discourse." The way of life of the religious orders could itself be a sign of a necessary paradigm shift.

According to Sister Herzig, the Jesuit Africa Network JENA is also among the substantive drivers of the Vatican letter. Its director, Fr. Charles Chilufya SJ, issued a clear critique of the existing situation in the course of its publication: "For too long, the financial and ecological burdens imposed on the Global South have not been addressed." The Dicastery's letter should therefore be understood as an impetus for a political and moral reassessment of international responsibilities.

In an accompanying text for the opening of the Holy Year (Spes non confundit), the Vatican recalls the basic biblical understanding: "As the Holy Scripture teaches, the earth belongs to God, and we all dwell on it as strangers and sojourners" (Lev 25:23). This follows the obligation to "forgive unjust and unpayable debts and to feed the hungry."

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The crisis in religious life is much deeper than the appalling statistics indicate.  Among the shattered remnants are quantities of boomer children doing almost anything else apart from leading a religious life.   The Church does not need the burden of sustaining an environmental activist life.  It is ironically unsustainable.

A lot of this is utterly poor theological education among the modernists.  If she is interested in finding out about justice and I doubt if she is, she needs to read the Divine Doctor, Saint Thomas Aquinas on justice.