Catholic Social Teaching, War, and the Environment
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Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 2016 Earthly Destruction: Catholic Social Teaching, War, and the Environment Daniel Cosacchi Loyola University Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss Part of the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Cosacchi, Daniel, "Earthly Destruction: Catholic Social Teaching, War, and the Environment" (2016). Dissertations. 2124. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/2124 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Copyright © 2016 Daniel Cosacchi LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO EARTHLY DESTRUCTION: CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING, WAR, AND THE ENVIRONMENT A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY PROGRAM IN THEOLOGY BY DANIEL COSACCHI CHICAGO, ILLINOIS AUGUST 2016 Copyright by Daniel Cosacchi, 2016 All rights reserved. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS As the greatest of Christian theologians, Saint Thomas Aquinas, once remarked, “every ingratitude is a sin.” In these pages, which I have eagerly anticipated writing for many years now, I firmly intend to avoid adding to my quite lengthy list of sins! There are so many people responsible for my growth as a scholar and person that I am moved to be able to mention here. As a junior in high school, on the eve of the 2003 United States invasion of Iraq, I attended a lecture at Fairfield University delivered by Rev. G. Simon Harak, S.J. In the span of that unforgettable hour of heartbreaking stories and even more heartbreaking pictures of Iraqi children killed and maimed by violence in their homeland, my mind and heart turned to the issue of warfare. While in graduate school, I began believing that our lack of care for ecology must play a part in the destruction of war. And so, this study emerged. Many people and institutions supported this study in a variety of ways. For the latter stages of my writing, I must thank the Louisville Institute for bestowing upon me their Dissertation Fellowship for the academic year 2015-16. This generous funding allowed me to finish the dissertation in a timely fashion. I am most grateful for their confidence in me and for the graciousness they showed the entire cohort of fellows in the February 2016 seminar. iii The three individuals who deserve the most thanks for my finally arriving at this point are my committee members. My advisor, William French, has been a constant source of support since I first arrived at Loyola University in August, 2010. Even at that point, I was sure that Bill was the person with whom I most wanted to work. His commitment to joviality in a profession that sometimes can get caught up in seriousness has been a constant source of consolation for me. My many visits to his office – filled with laughter – have been a source of strength for me, especially in many trying moments. Since I wrote these pages remotely, our phone calls and emails often kept this dissertation afloat when it otherwise would have sunk. Many thanks, Bill. My readers, Michael Schuck and Tobias Winright, have been incredibly supportive throughout this process. Mike has often suggested helpful sources that I otherwise would have overlooked. The dissertation is vastly improved because of his attention to detail. I first met Tobias at the 2012 Society of Christian Ethics Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. There, he took the time as a senior scholar to make a lowly graduate student feel welcome. His care in reading this work was equally gratifying for me. I thank you both for your help in this project. The three aforementioned people are among a long list of productive scholars and wonderful professors with whom I have studied at Loyola, Boston College, and Fordham University. I wish to name a few who have shaped my thought in a particular way: Rev. John Baldovin, S.J., Lisa Sowle Cahill, Christophe Chalamet, James Fisher, Rev. Roger Haight, S.J., Jeannine Hill-Fletcher, Rev. Kenneth Himes, O.F.M., Christine Firer Hinze, Rev. David Hollenbach, S.J., Rev. James Keenan, S.J., Michael Lee, Rev. Richard Lennan, Rev. Thomas Massaro, S.J., Jon Nilson, Stephen Pope, Tisha Rajendra, Susan iv Ross, Rev. J. Randall Sachs, S.J., Sandra Sullivan-Dunbar, Rev. Edward Vacek, S.J., Aana Vigen, and Rev. Richard Viladesau. I save three remarkable teachers for last because they have modeled for me what it means to be an educator. When I was a senior at Fordham, I was having a conversation with a fellow theology student when Elizabeth Johnson, C.S.J. walked past us. She turned around, quipping, “It is such a joy to see two future theologians conversing.” Those words, along with her many insights, have remained with me during many long days in the years since that encounter. The late Rev. Daniel Harrington, S.J. (d. 2014) was a scholar and teacher par excellence. His love of Scripture was inspiring. His scholarship is a goal no one can emulate, but one which I will always recall with fondness and admiration. Finally, no person in the academy has supported me as much as Rev. Mark Massa, S.J. For over a decade now, he has been my teacher, mentor, friend, and dinner companion as well as a constant endorser of my work. I vividly recall attending the Eucharistic liturgy at the Fordham University Church commemorating the Solemnity of Christ the King in 2007, at which Mark presided. After Mass, he asked how my discernment was coming for my graduate study. Before I could even answer, he informed me that the upcoming days would be “Dan Cosacchi Week” in his office. By the end of that week, we had my future mostly figured out. Since then, it has gone very much like what he suggested in those days. Every student should be lucky enough to have Mark championing them. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. At Loyola Chicago, Catherine Wolf and Marianne Wolfe shepherded me through the vagaries of the doctoral program from the time I arrived on campus until now. Evelyn White ensured this process came to a conclusion. I thank them. v When I moved away from Chicago in summer 2013, I wasn’t sure if I would be afforded the opportunity to teach. I am most grateful to Eileen Fagan, S.C., chair of the religious studies department at the College of Mount Saint Vincent, Riverdale, NY, who took me on as an adjunct in the 2014-15 academic year. Similarly, I wish to thank Ronald Davidson, chair of the religious studies department at Fairfield University, who extended to me a position as lecturer, as well as much-needed office space. Ron and other colleagues at Fairfield have been most welcoming. I especially thank Nancy Dallavalle, Hugh Humphrey, Paul Lakeland, and John Thiel. Over the course of these years a wonderful group of friends have supported me in so many ways. Here I mention the ones – theologians and not – who have helped me in ways they may not have fully known at the time: the Ahern Family (Beth, Kevin, and Finn), Rev. Michael Boughton, S.J., Meghan Clark, Katie Dalton, Roxanne De La Torre, Rev. Michael Doody, S.J., Jack Downey, The Fairfield Prep Young Latin Scholars (Rob Morton, Bill Pappa, and our chaplain, Rev. Larry Ryan, S.J.), Becky and Mike “Framacho,” the Ganas Family (Sean, Matt, and Javi), Shannon and Ryan Gaudet, Sean Gross, Rev. Jim Hederman, S.J., Randy and Daniela Jerome, Kevin Johnson, Rev. Michael Magree, S.J., Eric Martin, Megan McCabe, the McMillin Family (Andrew, Lena, Isaac, and Mateo), Rev. Joseph McShane, S.J., Erika Meyer, Rev. Msgr. Jim Mongelluzzo, Tom Murry, T.J. Oman, Catherine Osborne, Rev. Pat Ryan, S.J., Tom Rzeznik, Rev. Lito Salazar, S.J., Liz Wagner, and the inimitable Rev. Jeremy Zipple, S.J. In particular a few friends stand out for their fidelity. To my Loyola friends, who have pushed me in many ways to get this thing done, I am very grateful. Especially, I thank Aly Capp, Wendy Crosby, John Crowley-Buck, and Dan Dion. Jason Renken made vi sure he was always in town for Trivia; Michael McCarthy helped me pass comps; Brent Little treated me to French fries every other week and stimulating conversation and papal gossip every week for our “Fat Tuesday” meetings; Christian Cintron and Karen Ross have been such amazing friends ever since they arrived on campus. In turns hilarious, smart, and pessimistic, they have been conference buddy, papal election co-interviewee (Karen), trivia master (Christian), and people who cheered me on. Thanks! To Sarah Fetterhoff, Gigi Herrmann, Jim Keane, and Maggie Stahl (and your respective significant others): you have been with me since my first days at Fordham, and have truly changed my life. As Saint Paul wrote to the Philippians, “I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now” (1:3-5). To Brendan Coffey, n.S.J.: I will never forget the many nights we spent in our room in college pondering many of the topics covered in this study. As Isaiah proclaims, “How beautiful upon the mountain are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news” (52:7a).