Our Common Home

After roughly 6,000 actions in 180-plus countries bookended by two main days of demonstrations, the third global climate strike has come to a close. Maria Lourdes Guinto, a parishioner at Our Lady of Hope Parish in Quezon City, told NCR she hoped the strike would "elevate" awareness among friends, family and others.

Wildfires rage in the Amazon rainforest and other parts of the globe. Up to one million species face extinction, in large part due to human activities. This has formed the backdrop for the annual Season of Creation, timely tuned this year to the theme of biodiversity.

We say: If Christ is in all and informs all we do, the act of creation and the consequences of our actions upon that creation should rivet our attention in this time of crisis.

NCR interview: "If we don't get this issue right, in the end none of the other issues are going to matter, because human dignity will have been destroyed as we know it if our planet is destroyed."

Our Common Home: Catholic Charities of the Washington Archdiocese announced plans for a 2-megawatt solar array consisting of 5,000-plus panels that will provide enough renewable power to offset the energy needs of 12 of its buildings throughout the district. 

Our Common Home: Co-sponsored by the Catholic Climate Covenant and Creighton University, the June conference on climate action aimed to integrate Laudato Si' and its messages on creation care more deeply into the daily experience of Catholics in America. In a sense, to find ways to turn the big ideas into a more widespread reality.

The passenger to my right asked what was bringing me to Nebraska. "A conference about climate change," I told him, an answer that prompted a series of observations on his part that suggested recognition that something big is happening but uncertainty about the extent of the problem. 

Immaculate Conception Catholic Church is the first parish to complete a solar project with Catholic Energies, a program aimed at helping church organizations implement energy efficiency projects at no cost to the institution.

Our Common Home: In their 19-page pastoral statement, the bishops called on parents, teachers and catechists to "create an environmental consciousness within all Catholic families" and challenged public officials and business leaders to strengthen water systems and pursue carbon emission reductions . "It is our hope that this pastoral statement will inspire creative, life-giving responses here in California," they wrote.

The second global #FridaysForFuture climate strike, following the first in March that drew 1.4 million people, will include a growing number of young Catholics.

As debate around the Green New Deal continues, count more and more Catholics and religious leaders among those taking a closer look at the ambitious blueprint to address climate change.

While hospitals play a pivotal role in treating patients and communities dealing with health issues developing from the fallout of rising temperatures, they also represent a major source of pollutants.

Similarities between Laudato Si' and the Green New Deal go beyond attacks calling them radical and socialist. The documents share an approach that takes on both environmental and social problems.

Speakers at the event emphasized how climate-related disasters and other environmental hazards disproportionately affect low-income and minority communities around the world.

Pope Francis' Laudato Si' positioned the church to be a prominent voice on climate change. But despite that energy, there's still a feeling that Catholics have the potential to do more.