Social Justice is an action on behalf of those who are in need. It's a contribution to building a better society, an effort to change social structures, and a reflection of God's love for humanity. As Catholics, we are called by God and the Church to practice social justice in our daily lives, and one way of doing that is advocating for change regarding issues we are passionate about. For me, that issue is ocean pollution. This issue is an injustice because it violates many of the Catholic Social Justice Teachings, including Life and Dignity, Rights and Responsibilities and Care For God's Creation.
From this teaching we understand that all life is sacred and worthy, that every life is a gift from God that deserves to be protected. We are called to instigate change in situations that threaten the dignity and safety of any life.
Humans assume we are the dominant species, that other species are lesser than us. Because of this, we often take for granted everything nature offers us. By having this mentality, we devalue ourselves because we devalue all other life. Take the ocean for example, we decide that it is okay for us to exploit its resources for our own benefit.
But, we are not better than other animals because God created all life as equal. By taking advantage of and abusing the ocean and its animals, we are showing our disrespect towards God's creation, and therefore God Himself.
We are saying that marine life is not worthy enough, that it does not have value and is inferior to our lives, but that is not how God intended it to be. We are disregarding the way God wants His creation to be treated and respected.
As humans created in the likeness and image of God, we hold the right and have the responsibility of looking after and caring for God's creation. But we have a bad habit of not doing that especially when it come to pollution.
All living creatures were created by God with love and have the right to live, but humans often neglect and disregard lives other than our own, such as the lives who call the ocean their home. When we pollute the oceans we forget about and/or neglect our right and responsibility to protect all living things, as we are commanded to do so by God.
People often forget to think about the impact their actions are having on those other than themselves, and that is part of the problem. We also are doing nothing to fix our mistakes. Our harmful, selfish actions continue and so many lives continue to be negatively impacted. We deliberately choose to pollute the home of thousands, if not millions, of species and choose to do little to nothing about it.
This teaching tells us that we are called to protect the planet and all of the life on it, therefore showing our respect for God and His creation. We must live in faith in our relationship with God's creation. Ocean pollution is a sin that violates this because it is a damaged relationship between people and God's creation - the ocean and marine life.
Humans abuse and mistreat the ocean by dumping tons and tons of waste into it everyday. We are the cause of the sickness and death of so many aquatic creatures and ecosystems due to oil spills, chemical waste, toxic runoff and plastics we cause to end up in the oceans. God wants us to care for our world and all who live in it, not pollute it and ruin millions, if not billions, of lives.
Our carelessness about the choices we make in our everyday lives leads to all of the pollution building up in the world's oceans.