Part Four – At Home in the Web of Life (1995)
Observing
At Home in the Web of Life, the second pastoral letter of the Catholic bishops of Appalachia, was conceived as a continuation of the reflection started in This Land is Home to Me. Twenty years after the promulgation of the first pastoral, the second pastoral starts the hermeneutical circle again by observing the changes that have taken place in Appalachia in twenty years. Part one praises the positive results that grew out of the first letter, especially the work of community organizers, church ministries, women’s groups, and business people, among others. The economic-industrial context has changed as Appalachia’s booming industrial age, an age that brought prosperity to certain sectors of society, has come to an end. The new “post-industrial age,” on the other hand, is bringing Appalachia to the brink of unsustainability, creating a “wasteland” through unemployment, the extinction of small business by large corporate businesses, clear-cutting of forests, devastating mining procedures, dumping of out-of-state garbage and radioactive waste, and the increasing construction of prisons. In response to this change in context, the letter sees a need for the development of sustainable communities, “communities where people and the rest of nature can live together in harmony and not rob future generations.” Thus, the letter observes more strongly than the previous letter the reality of ecological devastation in Appalachia.
This pastoral letter’s first section includes a narrative of the history of the region like This Land is Home to Me, but this version of the story includes much more emphasis on the natural beauty and resources of the region, the “prehistory” of the native peoples, and the early colonial experience. Following this section on the region’s “prehistory” is the retelling of the “industrial age” that was narrated in the previous letter. The first part’s narration spends most of its time describing the “post-industrial” reality of Appalachia which includes the fleeing of large industries, lack of jobs, and the “opening up” of Appalachia to “outsiders” which was made possible through new communications technologies, roads, etc. The hope that this new openness would bring regional “development” was not fulfilled. Instead, this new openness in Appalachia during this period brought an influx of large “big-box” stores which destroyed local business through the “natural” process of competition, increased effects of the consumer-driven culture industries that have overshadowed Appalachian traditions, deforestation and extreme mining techniques, garbage dumping, and construction of new prisons,[21] much of which was and continues to be defended as the “only way of creating jobs.” Rather than describing this process as another stage in the economic trends of the region, the document calls this a “new economic system” that threatens “the very web of life.” In the face of these new realities, the document insists that the people of Appalachia have a choice to make between the path of sustainability or the path of unsustainability. This black or white choice mirrors the choice that was posed in the first letter: the choice between the God of life and justice or the god of death and oppression.
Judging
Like the first pastoral letter, At Home in the Web of Life judges the Appalachian reality in light of scripture and the Church’s social teaching. Instead of focusing solely on the scriptural theme of human liberation, however, the second pastoral extends its method into what could be called a “communion” hermeneutic, a sense of communion that includes all of creation. The reflection begins by recalling the creation narratives and scripture’s witness of God’s concern for all of creation, as well as the power sin has had over human institutions and creation itself. This pastoral thus connects ecological concerns with human liberation and redemption and describes them both as examples of the breaking of “living communion” that is caused by idolatry. Reconciliation with the poor and with creation is needed to restore the original communion that God intended. Christ is the ultimate reconciling presence that will bring about this restored creation which will be fully accomplished at the end of time, but in the meantime the Church and all persons of good will are called to work toward reconciliation, justice, and peace.
Next the letter reflects on the Appalachian reality through eight key principles of Catholic social teaching which had developed in more detail since the writing of the first pastoral, especially through the encyclicals of Pope John Paul II and several important statements by the Catholic bishops of the United States. First, the pastoral states that human dignity is threatened under the current state of affairs in Appalachia: “The consumer society is a direct attack upon the image of God within us, and an attack on justice, peace, and ecology.” Second, the consumer society’s individualistic mindset destroys the community which flows from creation’s participation in the divine life of the Triune God and hinders our concern for the common good. Thirdly, the pastoral reiterates Catholic social teaching’s insistence that the economy must value both the individual and the communal aspects of human life, rejecting both “materialistic socialism” and “materialistic capitalism.” Fourth, the importance of subsidiarity is being undermined in Appalachia: “If outside giant businesses or large governmental bureaucracies were to undermine the local web of life, they would be like a cancer which invaded its host organism only to drain off the life.” The role of large organizations, the pastoral says, “should only be to assist the local web of life.”
Fifth, the document discusses the issue of ownership, insisting on a right to private property that is subordinate to the common good. Extreme situations of absentee land ownership that hurt the common good violate God’s law and land reform needs to occur. Sixth, the importance of ecological concern is stressed, insisting that there is a natural order to creation and that if we violate it by abusing creation in the name of mammon, “creation itself will rebel against us.” Seventh, the document discusses the principle of sustainability and the need to put back into the social and ecological community what is used lest we steal from our children and from future generations. Finally, the pastoral has a very short section on the role of government which is to “serve the common good.” While the notion of government as the keeper of the common good is a traditional part of Catholic social teaching, At Home in the Web of Life stresses in this section that the common good cannot be limited to one’s own nation. The common good is now a “planetary concern” and includes the entire web of life.
Acting
The strength of this pastoral letter is the creativity of its suggestions for action in section three. The section begins by insisting that imagination and creativity are central to the Church’s mission in Appalachia: “In our present times, we believe, the mighty wind of God’s Spirit is stirring up people’s imaginations to find new ways of living together, based especially on the full community of all life, including love of all nature, and love of the poor. We call these new ways the rooted path of sustainable communities.” As noted in the last section, Appalachia is faced with a choice between the path of sustainability and the path of unsustainability. In an effort to choose the former, the pastoral encourages a new understanding of “development” that is sustainable by rooting itself in the local informal economy or “social economy,” perhaps on a county level. This localized alternative development would include social and economic “experiments” that contain the “creative seeds of a new civilization,” including sustainable practices of agriculture, forestry, ownership of land (including land reform and land trusts ), technologies (“appropriate technologies”), traditional culture, families, and churches. Many of these experiments are described in the text and elaborated upon in the numerous detailed end notes.
Of particular note is the fact that this section stresses the importance of ecclesial support and generation of these alternative social structures. Rather than simply creating centers of reflection for political action, the document calls for a “do-it-yourself” method of political action in which communities strive to actually embody within themselves the principles and commitments they want to see in the world rather than simply petitioning corporations or the government to change their policies: “One special challenge to the churches in Appalachia is for parishes and congregations to begin themselves to model these ideas.” Citing the example of the early Benedictine monasteries,[22] the document encourages local churches to experiment with alternative energy sources, farming, development of technology, creation of small businesses, and new forms of communication. As we noted earlier, the document mentions the state’s role as the promoter of the common good, but this traditional emphasis on the state is much more muted when compared to the stress placed on alternative social experiments and structures. As we will see in the next section which engages the “new ecclesiology” of practices, the vision described in At Home in the Web of Life shares much in common with the radically ecclesiocentric model of theologians such as Stanley Hauerwas and William T. Cavanaugh.
Next: Part Five – Appalachia today in the midst of new forms of “imperial capitalism”
Previously: Part One, Part Two, Part Three
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[21] For an overview of the history and growth of the prison industry in the United States, see Lee Griffith, The Fall of the Prison: Biblical Perspectives on Prison Abolition (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1993); Mark Lewis Taylor, The Executed God: The Way of the Cross in Lockdown America (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001).
[22] Here the letter echoes Joe Holland and Peter Henriot’s Social Analysis which points especially to religious communities as potential loci for ecclesial social “experiments” such as organic farming cooperatives, alternative energy sources, and “development banks” for alternative investments. “These experiments could, in turn, become models for wider social application, just as the early Benedictine monasteries served as agricultural experimentation centers, helping to rebuild Western civilization after the barbarian (sic) invasions” (Holland and Henriot, Social Analysis, 58).
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