The Trumpeter

Vol. 41 No. 1 (2025)
Articles

Deep Degrowth: Contributions from Catholic Social Teaching

PDF
  • Chad Baron,
  • Sam Mickey
Chad Baron
Degrowth California
Bio
Sam Mickey
University of San Francisco
Bio

Published 2026-03-19

How to Cite

Baron, C., & Mickey, S. (2026). Deep Degrowth: Contributions from Catholic Social Teaching. The Trumpeter, 41(1), 41–59. Retrieved from https://trumpeter.athabascau.ca/index.php/trumpet/article/view/1886
Copyright Notice

Abstract

Drawing on deep ecology's critique of the obsession with growth in contemporary socio-economic systems, this article explores what the authors call deep degrowth, particularly by looking at the intersection of the degrowth movement and the religious values of Catholic Social Teaching. Following a discussion of the degrowth movement’s critique of growth, the article discusses degrowth's approach to mending colonial relations and facilitating a just distribution of resources globally. Following that, the article examines Catholic Social Teaching’s commitment to the just distribution of resources, particularly considering its concept of distributive justice. The conclusion offers some remarks about affinities between degrowth and Catholic Social Teaching as well as potential future directions for deep degrowth.

PDF

References

  1. Akbulut, B. (2017). Commons. In Spash, C. L. (Ed.). Routledge handbook of ecological economics: Nature and society. Taylor & Francis.
  2. Alexander, A. (2023). Indigenous degrowth? Recognizing visions of what a world beyond growth could actually look like. Berliner Gazette. https://berlinergazette.de/indigenous-degrowth/
  3. Annett, A. M. (2022). Cathonomics: How Catholic tradition can create a more just economy. Georgetown University Press.
  4. Backhaus, U., Chaloupeck, G., & Frambach, H. (2017) Introduction. On the Economic Significance of the Catholic Social Doctrine: 125 Years of Rerum Novarum, 125-134.
  5. Bandarage, A. (2018). Social and ecological ethics. The Arrow, 5(1). https://arrow-journal.org/social-and-ecological-ethics
  6. Barucci, P. and Magliulo, A. (1996). L’insegnamento economico sociale della Chiesa (1981–1991). Mondadori Ed.
  7. Benedict XVI. (2009). Caritas in Veritate. Holy See. https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate.html
  8. Bernico, M. (2022). ‘Creation care’ isn’t enough. We need degrowth. Sojourners. https://sojo.net/articles/creation-care-isn-t-enough-we-need-degrowth
  9. Bucciarelli, E., Persico, T. E., & Mattoscio, N. (2011). The christian ethics of socio­economic
  10. development promoted by the catholic social teaching. The Journal of Philosophical Economics, 1, pp. 90-119.
  11. Buch-Hansen, H., & Koch, M. (2019). Degrowth through income and wealth caps?. Ecological economics, 160, 264-271.
  12. Catholic Church. (2000). Catechism of the catholic church (2nd ed.). Our Sunday Visitor.
  13. Christie, I., Gunton, R., & Hejnowicz, A. (2019). Sustainability and the common good: Catholic social teaching and ‘Integral ecology’ as contributions to a framework of social values for sustainability transitions. Sustainability Science, 14(5), 1343-1354.
  14. Clark, M. J. (2014). The Vision of Catholic Social Thought: The Virtue of Solidarity and the Praxis of Human Rights. Fortress Press.
  15. Cornish, S. (2009). Placing integral human development at the centre of Catholic social teaching. The Australasian Catholic Record, 86(4), 450-456.
  16. Cowie, R. H., Bouchet, P., & Fontaine, B. (2022). The Sixth Mass Extinction: fact, fiction or speculation?. Biological Reviews, 97 (2), 640-663.
  17. D'Alisa, G., Demaria, F., & Kallis, G. (Eds.). (2014). Degrowth: a vocabulary for a new era. Routledge.
  18. Della, P. (2018). Indigenous degrowth and global capitalism: Exploring notions of development in New Zealand literature. In Ramsey-Kurz, H., & Kennedy, M. (Eds.). Uncommon Wealths in Postcolonial Fiction (pp. 207–225). Brill.
  19. Demaria, F., & Latouche, S. (2019). Degrowth. In Kothari, A., Salleh, A., Escobar, A., Demaria, F., & Acosta, A. (Eds.). Pluriverse: A post-development dictionary (pp. 148-151). Tulika Books and AuthorsUpFront.
  20. Demaria, F., Schneider, F., Sekulova, F., & Martinez-Alier, J., (2013). What is degrowth? From an activist slogan to a social movement. Environmental Values, 22(2), 191–215.
  21. Florides, G. A., & Christodoulides, P. (2009). Global warming and carbon dioxide through sciences. Environment international, 35(2), 390-401.
  22. Francis. (2015). Laudato Si’: on care for our common home. Holy See.
  23. http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html
  24. Francis. (2020) Fratelli Tutti: on fraternity and social friendship. Holy See. https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20201003_enciclica-fratelli-tutti.html
  25. Francis. (2022). Meeting With Indigenous Peoples: First Nations, Métis and Inuit. Holy See. https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2022/july/documents/20220725-popolazioniindigene-canada.html
  26. Francis. (2023). Laudate Deum: Apostolic Exhortation of the Holy Father Francis to all people of good will on the climate crisis. The Holy See. https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/20231004-laudate-deum.html
  27. Frost, K. (2019). First Nations sovereignty, environmental justice, and degrowth in Northwest BC, Canada. Ecological Economics, 162, 133-142.
  28. Golemboski, D. (2015). The Globalization of Catholic Social Teaching. Journal of Catholic Social Thought, 12(1), 87-108.
  29. Goodhart, C., Hudson, M. (2018). Could/Should Jubilee Debt Cancellations Be Reintroduced Today? CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP12605
  30. Hall, A. C. (2017). Neo-monastics in North Carolina, de-growth and a theology of enough. Journal of Political Ecology, 24(1), 543-565.
  31. Helfrich, S., & Bollier, D. (2014). Commons. In D'Alisa, G., Demaria, F., & Kallis, G. (Eds.). Degrowth: a vocabulary for a new era. Routledge.
  32. Hickel, J. (2019). Degrowth: a theory of radical abundance. Real-World Economics Review,
  33. , March 19, 54-68. http://www.paecon.net/PAEReview/issue87/Hickel87.pdf
  34. Hickel, J. (2020). Less is more: How degrowth will save the world. Georgetown University Press.
  35. Hickel, J. (2020). Quantifying national responsibility for climate breakdown: an equality-based attribution approach for carbon dioxide emissions in excess of the planetary boundary. The Lancet Planetary Health, 4(9), e399-e404.
  36. Hickel, J. (2021). The anti-colonial politics of degrowth. Political Geography, 88, 102404. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2021.102404
  37. Hickel, J., & Kallis, G. (2020). Is green growth possible? New Political Economy, 25(4),
  38. –486.
  39. Hickel, J., Kallis, G., Jackson, T., O’Neill, D., Schor, J. B., Steinberger, J. K., Victor, P. A., Ürge-Vorsatz, D. (2022). Degrowth can work–here’s how science can help. Nature, 612, 400-403.
  40. Hoekstra, A.Y., and Wiedmann, T.O. (2014). Humanity’s unsustainable environmental footprint. Science, 344, 1114–1117
  41. John XXIII. (1963). Pacem in Terris. The Holy See. https://www.vatican.va/content/john-xxiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_j-xxiii_enc_11041963_pacem.html
  42. John Paul II. (1992). Apostolic Journey to Santo Domingo. The Holy See. https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/travels/1992/travels/documents/trav_santo-domingo-1992.html
  43. John Paul II. (1988). Sollicitudo rei socialis. The Holy See. https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_30121987_sollicitudo-rei-socialis.html#%2427
  44. Kallis, G. (2018). Degrowth. Agenda Publishing. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv5cg82g
  45. Kallis, G. (2017). The degrowth alternative. In Vansintjan, A (Ed.). In defense of degrowth: opinions and manifestos (pp. 19-26). Uneven Earth Press.
  46. Kallis, G., Paulson, S., D’Alisa, G., & Demaria, F. (2020). The case for degrowth. Polity Press.
  47. Kammer, F. (1991). Doing faithjustice : an introduction to Catholic social thought. Paulist Press.
  48. Kammer, F. (n.d.). Catholic Social Thought and Distributive Justice. Jesuit Social Research Institute. https://jsri.loyno.edu/sites/loyno.edu.jsri/files/CST_Distributive_Justice.pdf
  49. Leo XIV. (2025a). Address of His Holiness Pope Leo XIV to the College of Cardinals. Holy See. https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/speeches/2025/may/documents/20250510-collegio-cardinalizio.html
  50. Leo XIV (2025b). Address of Pope Leo XIV to Members of the International Inter-Parliamentary Union. Holy See. https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/speeches/2025/june/documents/20250621-giubileo-governanti.html
  51. Masaki, K. (2022). Exploring the ‘partial connections’ between growth and degrowth debates: Bhutan’s policy of gross national happiness. Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics, 34(1), 86–103. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/02601079211032103
  52. Mbow, C., C. Rosenzweig, L.G. Barioni, T.G. Benton, M. Herrero, M. Krishnapillai, E. Liwenga, P. Pradhan, M.G. Rivera-Ferre, T. Sapkota, F.N. Tubiello, Y. Xu., (2019): Food Security. In: Climate Change and Land: an IPCC special report on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems [P.R. Shukla, J. Skea, E. Calvo Buendia, V. Masson-Delmotte, H.-O. Pörtner, D.C. Roberts, P. Zhai, R. Slade, S. Connors, R. van Diemen, M. Ferrat, E. Haughey, S. Luz, S. Neogi, M. Pathak, J. Petzold, J. Portugal Pereira, P. Vyas, E. Huntley, K. Kissick, M. Belkacemi, J. Malley, (eds.)]. In press.
  53. McKibben, B. (2007). Deep economy: The wealth of communities and the durable future. Holt Paperbacks.
  54. Njoku, U. (2007). The influence of changes in socio-economic thinking on the development of
  55. post-vatican II catholic social teaching. Political Theology: The Journal of Christian
  56. Socialism, 8(2), 235-248.
  57. Parrique, T. (2019). The political economy of degrowth: Economics and finance. Stockholm University.
  58. Paul VI. (1965). Gaudium et spes. The Holy See. https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html
  59. Paul VI (1970). Visit of Pope Paul VI to the FAO on the 25gh anniversary of its institution. The Holy See. https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/speeches/1970/documents/hf_p-vi_spe_19701116_xxv-istituzione-fao.html
  60. Paul VI (1971). Octogesima Advenien: Apostolic Letter of Pope Paul VI. The Holy See. https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/apost_letters/documents/hf_p-vi_apl_19710514_octogesima-adveniens.html
  61. Paul VI. (1967) Populorum Progressio. The Holy See. https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_26031967_populorum.html
  62. Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. (2005). Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church. USCCB Publishing.
  63. Puggioni, R. (2017). Pope Francis and degrowth: A possible dialogue for a post-capitalist
  64. alternative. International Journal of Public Theology, 11(1), 7-35.
  65. Roberts, A., Donaldson, J. (1885) Ante-Nicene Fathers. Volume 2: Fathers of the Second Century: Hermes, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, and Clement of Alexandria (Entire). Christian Literature Publishing Co.
  66. Schor, J., (2014). Work Sharing. In D'Alisa, G., Demaria, F., & Kallis, G. (Eds.). Degrowth: a vocabulary for a new era. Routledge.
  67. Sen Roy, S., (2018). Climate change in the global south: trends and spatial patterns. Linking gender to climate change impacts in the global south, 1-25.
  68. Synod of Bishops. (1971). Justitia in mundo. Accessed: https://www.cctwincities.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Justicia-in-Mundo.pdf
  69. United Nations. (2019). SDG indicators. United Nations. https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2019/goal-12/
  70. United States Catholic Bishops. (1986). Economic Justice for All: Pastoral Letter on Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy. United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved from https://www.usccb.org/upload/economic_justice_for_all.pdf
  71. Wiedmann, Thomas, Manfred Lenzen, Lorenz T. Keyßer, and Julia K. Steinberger. 2020. “Scientists’ Warning on Affluence.” Nature Communications 11, no. 3107: 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16941-y
  72. Williams, J. (2024). The Islamic case for degrowth? The Earthbound Report. https://earthbound.report/2024/03/20/the-islamic-case-for-degrowth/
  73. Wirth, Jason. (2021). Deep Social Ecology. The Trumpeter, 37(1), 2–21. Retrieved from https://trumpeter.athabascau.ca/index.php/trumpet/article/view/1701