forthePreventionofCrueltytoAnimalstobeestablishedin
Rome,onthegroundsthattodosowouldimplythathuman
beingshavedutiestowardanimals.^16 Andwecanbringthis
accountrightuptothesecondhalfofthetwentiethcentury
without finding significant modifications in the official
position of the Roman Catholic Church. The following
passage,froman AmericanRomanCatholictext,makesan
instructive comparison with the passage written seven
hundred years ago, and quoted above, from Aquinas:
Intheorder ofnature,theimperfect isforthesake ofthe
perfect, the irrational is to serve the rational. Man, as a
rationalanimal,ispermittedtousethingsbelowhiminthis
orderofnatureforhisproperneeds.Heneedstoeatplants
andanimalsto maintainhislifeandstrength.Toeatplants
andanimals,theymustbekilled.Sokillingisnot,ofitself,an
immoral or unjust act.^17
Thepointtonoticeaboutthistextisthattheauthorsticksso
closelytoAquinasthatheevenrepeatstheassertionthatitis
necessaryforhumanbeingstoeat plantsandanimals. The
ignorance of Aquinas in this respect was surprising, but
excusablegiventhestateofscientificknowledgeinhistime;
that a modernauthor, whowould only needto look up a
standardworkonnutritionortakenoteoftheexistenceof
healthy vegetarians, should carry on the same error is
incredible.
Itwasonlyin 1988 thatanauthoritativestatementfromthe
Roman Catholic Church indicated that the environmental
movementisbeginning to affectCatholicteachings. In his
encyclical Solicitudo Rei Socialis (“On Social Concerns”),
Pope John Paul II urged that human development should