Catholic Rural Life, along with Catholic Climate Covenant partners, are pledging our support to a new international effort designed to encourage widespread coverage of the Holy Father’s teaching on the environment ahead of his encyclical.
Known as the Global Catholic Climate Movement, Catholic organizations and leaders throughout the world have announced their collaboration as a movement working toward a sustainable climate future.
Comprised of laity and clergy, theologians, scientists and activists, the Global Catholic Climate Movement released a statement on Jan. 14 containing their beliefs and mission. The statement supports Catholic environmental teachings and calls for prayer and action among the world’s Catholic population, making it the first time that such a global movement of Catholics gathers to work together on climate issues.
The GCCM launch coincides with the trip of Pope Francis to the Philippines (Jan. 15-19) where he is scheduled to meet with survivors of super typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest storms to reach landfall and reportedly strengthened by warming ocean waters. Cardinal Tagle, Archbishop of Manila, will present the movement and its statement to Pope Francis in Manila.
The movement plans to promote networking and sharing of information on climate change among Catholic organizations across national borders, to enhance a greater understanding of Catholic teaching on care of God’s creation, and to respond to Pope Francis’ and other church leaders’ concern about climate change.
As Catholic Rural Life has stressed for many years now, this is a crucial issue for nations and our global society. More of us need to act within the public sphere to face the challenge before us. [See our Study Guide on Climate Change]
The launch of the Global Catholic Climate Movement takes place at a time when the Catholic community is expecting an upcoming encyclical about ecology. This will no doubt spark a lot of interest among the laity to reflect mankind’s relationship with God’s creation and the consequential relationship with social issues.
