Vatican dicastery publishes document on ecological debt
June 24, 2025
The Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development has published a four-page document, “Jubilee 2025: Remission of the Ecological Debt.”
The document, released on June 23 and described as a “thematic note,” has three sections:
- Financial debt and ecological debt: ‘two sides of the same coin’
- Understanding the meaning of the ecological debt: a perspective of justice, responsibility and solidarity
- Pastoral Orientations
“Throughout history, on the one hand, the most industrialized countries have been responsible for the largest share of greenhouse gas emissions, which has contributed to the well-known phenomenon of global warming, and on the other hand, they have also built their prosperity through the intensive exploitation of natural resources in developing countries, often to the detriment of local communities and ecosystems,” the dicastery stated. “It is precisely this imbalance that has led many to believe that developing countries are owed a real and specific ecological credit by the more industrialized countries, which should at least partially offset the financial debt they are burdened with.”
The dicastery called upon the world’s dioceses to “position themselves prophetically” in debates on the issue:
The intertwining of financial debt and ecological debt acquires pastoral importance, committing the local Churches of the most industrialized and developing countries to grow in awareness, to consolidate bonds of reciprocity and mutual aid, and to position themselves prophetically in the public debate.... The paradigm of integral ecology, fraternity and social friendship demands the application of the Social Doctrine of the Church in diverse contexts and real challenges to which people are exposed at every latitude in this historical conjuncture.
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Further information:
- Jubilee 2025: remission of the ecological debt (Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development)
- Announcement from the dicastery
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