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A Water Ethic for a Sacramental Commons
A water ethic begins with the supreme principle that water is life. As a result, the right to water is an absolute. Clean water is essential for the health and well-being of communities and ecosystems. Access to water for basic human needs is a fundamental human right and a key component to any effective distribution strategy. Broad participation must be the basis of water management programs on governmental levels – national, regional and local.
For the Roman Catholic Church, Pope John Paul II has embraced the natural environment as a major concern for people of faith. The Holy Father made this clear with his 1990 World Day of Peace message, "The Ecological Crisis: A Common Responsibility" when he stated that the ecological crisis is a moral problem. In his 1993 Lenten Message, Pope John Paul II developed the biblical aspect of his ecological call, citing the frequent references of Jesus to water and to thirst. The Holy Father noted that human activity is the cause of the barrenness of the land and the pollution of clean water. Large populations of people have been reduced to destitution and disease because of the lack of clean drinking water. The solutions to such serious problems can only be found through cooperation, he said. In a January 2001 message, Pope John Paul II called the faithful to an "ecological conversion" – a moral call to protect the environment and make the earth a place where all life is valued and can grow in harmony.
This acceptance of a sacramental universe and a sacramental commons, as John Hart expressed in his keynote presentation, will prove invaluable for Christians confronting the worsening water crisis. In recognition of this, NCRLC has begun to identify actions to restore, conserve and increase the availability of "living water" for members of the sacramental community. Similar to the four-step process identified by Dr. Hart as a way to promote care for the sacramental commons of water, the NCRLC workshop addressed the following:
(1) Social analysis of the historical context of water issues: sources of pollution, politics of privatization, economic harms and threats to humans and other living beings.
(2) Spiritual reflection on religious and spiritual teachings regarding care for creation, community, and the common good, with community discernment about which teachings would relate to local water issues.
(3) Social vision that imagines what the commons might be like if spiritual teachings were implemented in the current water commons, in order to begin the transformation of polluted or privatized water and fully realize a renewed water commons.
(4) Social projects that lead towards the socio-spiritual vision of a sacramental community living in a sacramental commons, sharing common goods and promoting the common good.
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