News Items

The Forum regularly posts news articles of interest here from a variety of sources and news outlets. You can check back here or view the most recent ones from the homepage. We also archive these articles here, for those doing research, with news going back to 2006. Use the menu on the right to explore the archived articles.

News

Water unites us, so make it available to all

April 24, 2018
By Alex Mikulich
National Catholic Reporter

Water literally is both the gift of life and a threat of death. In my home of New Orleans and many places like it throughout the world, we know too well the death-dealing power of water. While we have spent billions to build a levee system to protect people and buildings, the failure to rebuild aging sewerage...

Church teaching leads Catholic entities to divest from fossil fuels

April 23, 2018
By Dennis Sadowski
Crux

A wind turbine turns in front of a fossil fuel power plant in Charlestown, Mass., in this 2013 file photo. Catholic institutions are planning to divest part of their financial portfolios from the fossil fuel industry because of its impact on climate change. (Credit: Brian Snyder/Reuters via CNS.)

Pope Francis brings a new lens to poverty, peace and the planet

April 23, 2018
By Robert W. McElroy
America: The Jesuit Review

Divestment from fossil fuels is a witness to our faith

April 23, 2018
By John O’Shaughnessy and Erin Lothes
National Catholic Reporter

This week, an international coalition of Catholic institutions announced its divestment from fossil fuels. These include Caritas Internationalis (a Vatican-affiliated institution), Catholic banks with combined balance sheets of approximately €7.5 billion and Catholic bishops, among others.

Cardinal Turkson emphasizes importance of caring for creation at St. Louis Climate Summit

April 23, 2018
By Joseph Kenny
St. Louis Review

Cardinal Peter Turkson gave a bonus talk at the St. Louis Climate Summit, which is hosted by St. Louis University as a way to advance the Pope Francis’ encyclical, “Laudato Si’.” In both talks, the cardinal referred to the need to respect creation.

Access to clean water is a life issue that the church must defend

April 20, 2018
By Christiana Zenner
National Catholic Reporter

Five years ago, few people thought of the Catholic church as ecologically activist or environmentally diplomatic. But Pope Francis’ election to the papacy changed that, especially since the promulgation of his 2015 ecology encyclical, “Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home.” In my analysis, fresh water...

'Laudato Si' universities' commit to forming environmental consciences

April 19, 2018    
By George Rodriguez
National Catholic Reporter

Moravia, Costa Rica — Universities worldwide may be answering a call to become their communities’ environmental consciences if they take an active role in an awareness effort launched by the Catholic University of Costa Rica, based on Pope Francis’ environmental encyclical, Laudato Si’...

Do you believe in God? Then you have a moral duty to fight climate change, writes Jim Antal

April 18, 2018
By Tom Montgomery Fate
Chicago Tribune

Jim Antal recognizes that most Americans are not engaged by the climate change issue. “Two in three Americans think global warming is happening (67%), yet most Americans (65%) rarely or never discuss it,” he writes, citing a Yale study in his new book, “Climate Church, Climate World.”

Turn climate 'words into action' say Faith Leaders

April 17, 2018
Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD)

Devastating flooding across South Asia in 2017 displaced 41 million people and resulting in the deaths of more than 1,000 people 

Former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Williams and more than 170 faith leaders from across the Commonwealth have issued a call to governments to turn “words into action” on climate...

Activist priest John Dear tours with new book on resisting climate change

April 14, 2018
By Tom Boswell
National Catholic Reporter

More news...