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.

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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...

"Ridiculous" to tell pope to butt out of climate change debate

June 19, 2015
By Douglas Todd
The Vancouver Sun

Those who claim Pope Francis should keep quiet about the disastrous consequences of climate change are, in effect, trying to silence almost half the Canadian population, says a Jesuit scientist.

Falling in Love With the Earth: Francis' Faithful Ecology

June 19, 2015
By Jacob J. Erickson
Religion Dispatches

In a brief article in an unassuming 1967 edition of Science, a medieval historian from the University of...

How to Read Pope Francis on the Environment (Interview with Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim)

Interviewee: Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim, co-directors, The Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale University

Interviewer: Robert McMahon, Editor

Council on Foreign Relations
June 18, 2015

Pope Francis: The Cry of the Earth

June 18, 2015
By Bill McKibben
The New York Review of Books

The old conceit that the president has a “bully pulpit” needs updating; it’s clear that the pulpit at St. Peter’s Basilica is now the bulliest of all. Pope Francis may lack legions, but he has 6.3 million followers on Twitter, and for a week now the world has been following leaks of his new encyclical on climate...

Metropolitan John Zizioulas: Laudato Si' give Orthodox "great joy"

June 18, 2015
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) The presentation of the Encyclical Letter of Pope Francis Laudato Si’ included a presentation by Metropolitan John (Zizioulas) of Pergamon, a representative of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.

Pope Francis sounds the alarm on the environment and he wants everyone to listen

June 18, 2015  
By Matthew Bell
PRI’s The World

The head of the Roman Catholic Church released an official document in Rome on Thursday that has been creating buzz for months. It’s called an encyclical, the highest form of teaching issued by a pope, and it is addressed to everyone — literally — in the whole world.

“I would like to enter into...

ELCA issues statement on Pope Francis' encyclical on climate change

June 18, 2015
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

CHICAGO (ELCA) – The Rev. Elizabeth A. Eaton, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), released a statement June 18 on behalf of this church in response to Pope Francis’ encyclical on climate change and the deteriorating global environment. The full text of the statement follows:

Why Pope Francis' encyclical matters

June 18, 2015
By Thomas Reese   
National Catholic Reporter

Some of the most frequently asked questions I have gotten from journalists this week: Why does the encyclical matter? What impact will it have? Why is it getting all this attention?

Let’s start with the last question: Why is it getting all this attention?

The encyclical, “...

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