Moral Legitimacy of Geothermal Development in Catholic Social Teaching and Integral Ecology

Policarpus Raga (Widya Sasana School of Philosophy and Theology, Malang)

Melintas An International Journal of Philosophy and Religion
Vol. 41 No. 2 (2025): Melintas - An International Journal of Philosophy and Religion

Renewable-energy transitions were increasingly justified by climate urgency, energy security, and sustainable development. However, geothermal development could remain socially contested even when it was technically feasible, legally authorized, and environmentally beneficial. Existing energy-justice scholarship had extensively addressed distribution, participation, recognition, and transition justice, but the prior question of what made development morally legitimate remained insufficiently theorized. This study aimed to examine the normative conditions under which geothermal development could credibly claim moral legitimacy as a form of public action. The study employed a qualitative theological-normative design based on conceptual and documentary analysis. Primary sources included Caritas in Veritate, Laudato Si’, and relevant Catholic Social Teaching documents, while secondary sources covered energy justice, just transition, recognition, epistemic justice, and moral philosophy. The findings showed that Caritas in Veritate distinguished developmental success from moral legitimacy by interpreting development as a relational moral practice. Moral legitimacy depended on the integration of the common good, human dignity, meaningful participation and subsidiarity, and solidarity. Laudato Si’ extended this framework by locating social legitimacy within the broader horizon of integral ecology. The study concluded that legal compliance, technical performance, economic benefit, and ecological purpose could not independently establish the moral legitimacy of geothermal development. Legitimate energy development required socially and ecologically justifiable relationships with affected persons and communities. This study developed a relational-normative framework for geothermal ethics by bringing Catholic Social Teaching into dialogue with energy-justice scholarship. It extended energy-transition ethics from evaluating discrete justice criteria toward examining the moral justification of development itself.