American Catholics and Environmentalism: On the Road to Ecological Conversion

Abstract: The Catholic engagement with environmentalism in the American context has been a two-phase development. The first occurred through the late nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries and included various Catholic "green revolutions" surrounding concerns with the impact on agriculture of industrial capitalism, mechanization, and efficiency considerations, along with numerous rural cultural and family life issues. The second phase emerged in the latter 1960s, primarily in response to mounting evidence and public alarm over environmental degradation. This article presents a general overview of these two phases of American Catholic environmentalism and its current status.