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

Why Social Conditions Matter to the Pope

August 27, 2015
By Grace Ji-Sun Kim and Rev. Jesse Jackson
Huffington Post

We Christians tend to focus on personal piety. When dealing with others, we become legalistic and concentrate on dos and the don’ts, mostly of other people. We delight in creating 11th commandments like, “thou shall not drink nor smoke” instead of treating each of these as a medical issue, which they...

Islam and ecology: In almost perfect harmony

August 21 2015
By Erasmus
The Economist

WHEN Pope Francis issued his 192-page encyclical on climate change and pollution, this was rightly hailed as a landmark in the history of the papacy, and of environmentalism. Now Islamic...

Can Islamic scholars change thinking on climate change?

Declaration calls on Muslims to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

By Davide Castelvecchi, Quirin Schiermeier, & Richard Hodson
Nature
August 19, 2015

Fewer than four months before politicians gather in Paris to try to hammer out an international climate agreement, Islamic scholars have underscored the urgency of halting climate change.

The Islamic Climate Change Declaration Could Be More Effective Than Pope Francis's Encyclical

August 19, 2015
By Emma Foehringer Merchant
New Republic

A Pilgrimage to the Tar Sands

August 18, 2015
By Mary Pendergast, RSM
Ecospirituality Resources

 

“The disappearance of a culture can be just as serious, or even more serious, than the disappearance of a species of plant or animal.  The imposition of a dominant life-style linked to a single form of production can be just as harmful as altering ecosystems.”
#145 ...

Major Islamic Climate Change Declaration Released

August 18, 2015
Press Release

Istanbul, Turkey -  Islamic leaders from 20 countries today launched a bold Climate Change Declaration to engage the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims on the issue of our time.

The Pope and the Planet

August 13, 2015
By Bill McKibben
New York Review of Books

 

Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home

an encyclical letter by Pope Francis
Vatican Press, 184 pp., available at...

The Peronist Roots of Pope Francis' Politic

August 12, 2015
By Uki Goñi
New York Times

Pope Francis' Appeal for the Future

August 12, 2015
By Daniel C. Maguire
Consortium News

Pope Francis is pleading for world leaders to defend the rights of mankind and the future of nature against the power of corporations and the pillage of “free market” dogma, a warning about the planet’s survival that vested political and media interests reject out of hand, writes Daniel C. Maguire.

Pope Francis announces World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation

August 10, 2015
Vatican Radio

Pope Francis has decided to set up a “World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation” which will be celebrated on September 1st annually.

He made the announcement in a letter to the heads of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity.

Listen to Lydia O’Kane’s report...

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