Brian Roewe

Catholic and environmental activists expressed a guarded optimism that a Biden administration will reorient the country on climate after four years of inaction, but they were well aware of the hurdles he faces.

This moment offers "an opportunity and a grace" for restoration, beginning with religion playing a vital role in nurturing greater respect for creation and one another, cardinal tells conference on Laudato Si'.

Publication puts spotlight on climate crisis, environmental justice and faith

At least a half dozen religious campaigns have homed in on climate change ahead of the election. Will it be enough to motivate the environmental voters — 10 million by one nonpartisan estimate — who didn't vote in 2016?

The new book Faith for Earth: A Call for Action spotlights the shared reverence and responsibility across faiths toward the environment, and their collective resolve to take actions to preserve it.

Archbishop Paul Coakley delivered a plea on behalf of the planet Oct. 1 during a virtual policy briefing the U.S. bishops' conference held for the co-chairs of the bipartisan Senate Climate Solutions Caucus.

Burning Question: Beyond the birdbaths and the blessing of pets on his Oct. 4 feast day, Francis of Assisi is also known as the patron saint of ecology. What does that mean? Who made that decision? And why?

Utilities are one of the three major costs a typical parish or school faces, and benchmarking energy use can identify ways to be more efficient — important, too, as research indicates that as much as 60% of the greenhouse gas emissions in the Chicagoland region come from powering its buildings.

EarthBeat spoke with seven young Christians about the election, their vote and climate change. All said climate change is affecting their lives, and all see their faith influencing how they vote.

Pushing back against single-issue voting, Lexington Bishop John Stowe said during a Sept. 10 webinar that Catholics should consider concerns beyond abortion, such as the environment, when evaluating candidates.

The every-dad Catholic comedian went trending on Twitter as he let out a flurry of invective-filled tweets as the Republican National Convention came to a close and after Trump made a case for re-election.

Burning Question: The Season of Creation is a monthlong prayerful observance that calls the planet's 2.2 billion Christians to pray and care for God's creation. It is becoming more prominent, and Catholic involvement is growing. It's not just about prayer, though.

The state of the climate was spotlighted Aug. 19 at the Democratic National Convention, when speakers said the convergence of climate change, jobs and justice was key. Thursday, accepting the party's nomination, Joe Biden listed climate change among "a perfect storm" of "four historic crises" facing America at once.

The first Catholic Energies project was in Virginia, in the Richmond Diocese. Of the 22 solar installations in all the program expects to have completed by the end of the year, 10 are in the Old Dominion.

A new campaign, called "Amazoniza-te," or "Amazonize yourself," seeks to raise awareness of the many ways that COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, endangers communities and forests in the globally critical biome.

The U.S. bishops' domestic anti-poverty program approved a $500,000 national grant to assist low-income people in the Southeast "to overcome the impacts and address the root causes of climate change." 

Faith leaders criticized final rules issued this week from the Trump administration to limit federal environmental reviews, arguing that they ignore "bedrock" purposes of environmental protection and will limit input from the communities most affected by major infrastructure and energy projects.

In June 2014, the University of Dayton ventured into fairly uncharted territory for a Catholic college, much less any U.S. academic institution. Now the university has been completely divested from fossil fuels for more than three years.

Catholic leaders in the Amazon formed a new church body that will head up implementing the proposals put forward last year at the Vatican's special synod on the Amazon.

Alumni and current students of the University of Notre Dame's Catholic education program are calling for reforms to better equip future teachers to understand and address issues of race, power and privilege in the classroom.