The Catholic Church today, from the Vatican to the U.S. This past January, he advocated for progress at this June’s climate talks at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro (Rio+20). Pope Benedict XVI has carried the Catholic Church’s message forward in numerous speeches and writings.

It is about our human stewardship of God’s creation and our responsibility to those who come after us.” It is about protecting both ‘the human environment’ and the natural environment. “It is about the future of God’s creation and the one human family. “At its core, global climate change is not about economic theory or political platforms, nor about partisan advantage or interest group pressures,” the bishops said in their 2001 statement. Creation, Stewardship, One Human Family Cited They include a pastoral statement in 1991 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on environmental protection, “ Renewing the Earth,” and “ Global Climate Change: A Plea for Dialogue, Prudence and the Common Good.” The bishops’ 2001 statement, aligned with its involvement as a partner in the National Religious Partnership for the Environment, guides Catholics on the climate issue today in the U.S. Pope John Paul II invigorated activism among Catholics toward environmental justice, and his 1990 message inspired later statements from the Church - some focusing more sharply on climate change.

The late Pope’s words came shortly before The First Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, in 1990, which itself warned that “anthropogenic climate change will persist for many centuries.” “The resulting meteorological and atmospheric changes range from damage to health to the possible future submersion of low-lying lands.” This is one in an ongoing series of featuresĮxploring climate communications to various faith communities. “Industrial waste, the burning of fossil fuels, unrestricted deforestation, the use of certain types of herbicides, coolants and propellants: all of these are known to harm the atmosphere and environment,” he said. John Paul II’s message on that day pointed to a worldwide ecological crisis, and while it did not mention climate change by name his references were clear. On January 1, 1990, Pope John Paul II delivered his World Day of Peace message to Catholics around the world, and for that year’s address he lamented a “widespread destruction of the environment.” World peace, he warned, was threatened not only by arms, conflict, and injustice, but by “a lack of due respect for nature.”

The Catholic Church hierarchy, beginning with the Pope more than two decades ago, has framed climate change as a moral issue involving ‘the future of God’s creation’ and one best viewed through four principles guiding Catholics’ worldview. Media requests for Jeff Masters and Bob Henson.

Usccb catechism