In recent years official Roman Catholic documents have addressed the ecological
crisis from the perspective of Catholic social teaching. This expansion of Catholic social
thought addresses the social and ecological question. This paper links environmental and human ecology with the concept of sustainability and proposes an interpretation of the common good and a definition of sustainability within Catholic social teaching. Our treatment of sustainability and Catholic social teaching includes: an analysis of the
ecological processes that sustain nature; insights from human ecology, and an
examination of models of sustainability as a foundation for re-structuring society to
promote the common good. The paper provides a summary of the historical expansion of the common good within modern Catholic social thought, and concludes with an
ecological interpretation of the common good and a definition of sustainability within the Catholic understanding of justice
