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

Pope Francis: climate evangelist?

By Virginia Gewin
Flux

December 19, 2014

Overview

Pope Francis is expected to produce the first ever encyclical - the highest level Catholic teaching document - focused solely on the environment and climate change next year. Scientists have made the case that climate change threatens the natural world. Can religious leaders now make the moral case for...

Care for the Whole Creation: The World Council of Churches at COP20 in Lima

December 17, 2014
By Grace Ji-Sun Kim
Huffington Post

It felt like the world had descended upon Lima, Peru. Political leaders, scientists, activists, NGOs, world leaders and religious leaders gathered at the COP20 (20th annual Conference of the Parties, sponsored by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC...

Preparing for the Storm: Anticipating and Countering the Attacks on Pope Francis and His Encyclical

Full title:

Preparing for the Storm: Anticipating and Countering the Likely Attacks on Pope Francis and His Environmental Encyclical

December 16, 2014
By Dan DiLeo
Millennial Journal

The New Paradigm of Energy Ethics

By Erin Lothes
Global Energy Affairs
December 2014

Global group of Catholic bishops call for end to fossil fuels

December 10, 2014
By Matt McGrath
BBC News

Catholic bishops from around the world are calling for an end to fossil fuel use and increased efforts to secure a global climate treaty.

Catholics, they say, should engage with the process leading to a proposed new deal to be signed in Paris next year.

The statement is the first time that senior church figures from...

New chapter in Daoist ecology

Alliance of Religions and Conservation
December 10, 2014

In a visit to China last month ARC Secretary General Martin Palmer was impressed by recent progress made by Daoism in meeting the country’s environmental challenges.

Pope Francis's Ecology Encyclical — What Can We Expect?

December 10, 2014
By Henry Longbottom, SJ
The Jesuit Post

The word emanating from Vatican corridors is that we can expect to see the long awaited environment-themed encyclical at some point during 2015.

Call for Papers: "An Unexpected Wilderness: Seeking God on a Changing Planet"

Sixty-First Annual Convention of the College Theology Society

May 28-31, 2015

University of Portland, Oregon, USA

Submission Deadline: December 15, 2014

https://www.collegetheology.org/

 

Gods and faith versus Coal in name of climate change

Religious leaders in Australia are taking on coal with polite letters and coal blockades and say they’re in it for the long haul in the name of climate change

By Graham Readfearn
The Guardian
December 5, 2014

It’s probably the closest thing the coal industry will ever get to actually receiving the word of a god – or rather, a note from several gods as well as other...

Bishops in Peru issue call to combat climate change

December 6, 2014
AFP

Catholic bishops from around the world issued an urgent call Saturday for greater action to combat global warming and reduce “climate injustice.”

Religious leaders of all faiths should work together “to work sustainable agreements to promote the care of our planet,” the clergy members said in a statement issued by the Episcopal Conference of Peru in Lima...

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