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

The pope's effect on politics

June 21, 2015
By Barrie Dunsmore
Rutland Herald

This past week Pope Francis inserted himself directly into the 2016 U.S. presidential elections. Whether or not that was the intent, it is a clear consequence of the pope’s new encyclical on the environment — because this document puts him on a collision course with the Republican Party.

Tell Us How Your Church Addressed the Pope's Encyclical

June 21, 2015
New York Times

Pope Francis's important ecology lesson

Could the Pope’s climate change encyclical change the world?

By Stephen Bede Scharper
Toronto Star
June 21, 2015

Twenty years ago, I taught a course on religion and the environment at the University of Notre Dame.

When people heard this, they would often scrunch up their faces and ask, “What does faith have to do with ecology?”

In the past few years,...

World View of Global Warming: The Photographic Documentation of Climate Change

June 2015
By Gary Braasch
World View of Global Warming

“The earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth,” warns Pope Francis. “Bring the whole human family together,” he urges, “redefine our notion of progress, move forward in a bold cultural revolution.”

 

For Faithful, Social Justice Goals Demand Action on Environment

June 20, 2015
By Justin Gillis
New York Times

For an earnest young Christian named Ben Lowe, revelation came on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, in Africa. A relentless warming of the lake was reducing the catch of fish, the people were going hungry — and he had learned of scientific evidence that...

Climate Change and Moral Responsibility

June 19, 2015
By Bartholomew and Justin Welby
New York Times

Francis' Momentous Encyclical: On Care for Our Common Home

June 19, 2015
By Dave Pruett
Huffington Post

“We are in trouble just now because we do not have a good story. We are between stories.” – Father Thomas Berry

Pope Francis and Integral Ecology

June 18, 2015
By Sam Mickey
Becoming Integral

The new encyclical by Pope Francis, Laudato Si’: On the Care of our Common Home, contains many references to “integral ecology,” including an entire chapter by that title.

Wisconsin Islamic Group Ties Green Initiatives to Spirituality

June 18, 2015
By Susan Bence
Milwaukee Public Radio

Among faith groups, a ground swell of environmental concern has been building. This includes within the Muslim community, which begins Ramadan – their sacred month of fasting – today.

In Milwaukee, a group called the Islamic Environmental Group of...

Pope Francis' Encyclical: Hearing the Cry of the Earth

June 19, 2015
By Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Huffington Post

The Earth “now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her.” So begins Pope Francis in his powerful and long-awaited encyclical on ecology. “The earth herself, burdened and laid waste...

More news...