Brian Roewe

The Biden administration's approval this week of a massive oil drilling project in northern Alaska amounts to "a betrayal" of the president's pledges on climate change and endangers Arctic communities with pollution, said faith-based organizations who joined environmental and Indigenous groups in condemning the decision.

As part of Catholic Sisters Week 2023, the congregation has been sharing examples of their ecological sustainability practices on social media as well as eco-centered prayers and suggestions for ways everyone can live in greater harmony with the rest of creation.

Vatican official Cardinal Michael Czerny told a Gonzaga University audience that colleges need to become again "hotbeds of critical thinking and incubators of radical action" — inspired by Pope Francis' encyclicals.

The first pope to select as his namesake the patron saint of ecology, Pope Francis has emphasized concern for creation as a priority of the Catholic Church, and made ecology a central theme of his papacy.

Tomás Insua, leader and co-founder of the Laudato Si' Movement, will step down as executive director later this year. Insua announced his forthcoming departure in a letter Feb. 18, but added he will remain in the Catholic ecological movement in other roles.

The Vatican and the Stockholm Environment Institute have released "Our Common Home" a digital and print resource to help Catholic communities respond to Pope Francis' calls to develop a more sustainable future.

During COP15 two new guides were issued to support faith communities who want to join larger efforts to protect the world's ecosystems through reforesting and facilitating conversations around environmental restoration.

Under a conservation easement with the Bluegrass Land Conservancy, the land surrounding the Loretto Sisters' motherhouse — farmland, forest, native grasses, lakes and creeks — will be protected and preserved permanently.

The EPA's new proposed limits on soot pollution are a step forward for air quality but fall short of what's needed to save more lives, say faith groups, public health officials and environmental justice advocates.

U.S. Catholic institutions are finding creative ways to repurpose aging infrastructure, rather than demolish and rebuild. Many have grounded their plans in Catholic teaching, such as Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Si'.

"With Benedict XVI, we had not only strong theology ... but we also had strong actions": Theologians say part of the late pope's legacy will be his teachings that rooted environmental concerns in Catholic tradition.

The nations of the world secured a historic deal on behalf of nature on the final day of the United Nations COP15 summit, charting a path to halt and reverse the rapid loss of biodiversity by 2030.

Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic, apostolic nuncio to Canada, said at COP15 that the global deal under negotiation here in Montreal must address the drivers of biodiversity loss and uphold the rights of Indigenous peoples.

The prospect of new protected areas in the 30x30 plan raises alarms for many Indigenous communities around the world, who fear they could be barred from their traditional lands in the name of conservation.

Meeting with Elizabeth Mrema, executive secretary of the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity, the Faiths at COP15 coalition pledged to mobilize their communities to implement whatever biodiversity agreement is achieved.

An event Dec. 8, titled Faith Voices Raising Ambition for a Strong Global Biodiversity Framework, marked the first time that faith-based organizations held an official side event at a U.N. biodiversity conference. Faith groups hope to raise their moral voices and contribute to implementation strategies at COP15 in Montreal.

Nations are gathering in Canada for COP15, the U.N. biodiversity summit. Representatives of the world's religions will be there, where they hope to raise moral principles and policy priorities on preserving creation.

Catholic groups welcomed the historic deal reached at the United Nations climate summit to establish a "loss and damage" fund for vulnerable countries, even while negotiations fell short in other areas, they said.

The Vatican is now part of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement. What does that mean for the role it will play in future U.N. climate negotiations?

One of the key points being debated at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt is loss and damage from the impacts of climate change. The latest EarthBeat "Burning Question" explores what it is, what you should know and what the Catholic Church has said about it.