Parish Earthcare Group
15 May 2025
Pope: Care for creation is an ethical and theological issue – Catholic Outlook
In CBS interview, Francis calls climate change 'a road to death,' chastises 'foolish' deniers
Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin delivers Pope Francis’ speech to delegates at the UN Climate Change Summit, urging world leaders not to postpone action any longer but to craft concrete and cohesive responses for the well-being of our common home and future generations.
https://catholicoutlook.org/pope-francis-address-to-the-un-climate-change-summit-cop28/
Laudate Deum - Praise God
We take a look at the Pope’s new Apostolic Exhortation on integral ecology, Laudate Deum, and give you a way in which you can take action leading up to the upcoming climate conference in Dubai.
Praise God - Office For Justice, Ecology and Peace (catholic.org.au)
SEE ALSO
Laudato Deum Advocacy Towards COP28 HERE
and
Letters and Petitions inspired by Laudate Deum for COP28 HERE
Our lifestyle and our over-strained planet – Catholic Outlook by Fr Ron Rolheiser, 27 October 2023
Season of Creation: September 1 - October 4
We will celebrate the Season of Creation at all Masses on the weekend of September 16/17.
Read Our Common Home - A Guide to Caring for our Living Planet A joint initiative of the Holy See (the Vatican) and the Stockholm Environment Institute.
Our Parish Climate Change Action Group was established to respond to Pope Francis’ call in his encyclical Laudato Si' for immediate action to mitigate global warming and avoid committing a brutal act of injustice on the poor and future generations.
Contact the Parish Office if you wish to join our group or would like further information. See our weekly parish newsletter for regular articles and meeting dates.
Laudato Si' (Praise Be to You) is the second encyclical of Pope Francis. The encyclical has the subtitle "on care for our common home". In it, the Pope critiques consumerism and irresponsible development, laments environmental degradation and global warming, and calls all people of the world to take "swift and unified global action."
Links to Resources:
Laudato Si Official Vatican Website
Understanding Laudato Si (4.55 YouTube video clip)
Catholics saved carbon by cutting out meat on Fridays, study shows
Our over-burdened planet: Humans weren’t a mistake, though admittedly much of our stewarding has been because we tend to think of the world as something we can strip mine in any way that benefits us rather than as a garden, with limited resources, which we have been asked to care for with love. Read in browser »
A sustainable population - How many Australians? The need for Earth-centric ethics Paul Collins HERE
Vatican launches new film on urgency of climate change
The Vatican has marked the Feast of St Francis of Assisi with the global premiere of a new documentary on the urgent need to address climate change, on the same day two UN climate change accords entered into force for the Holy See. The two events, held in Rome, helped mark the feast of the patron saint of animals and ecology, and the namesake of Pope Francis.
“Both documents will enter into force for the Holy See, in the name and on behalf of the Vatican City State, on 4 October 2022, the Solemnity of St. Francis,” said a joint statement by the pontifical academies of Sciences and Social Sciences and the Vatican Secretariat of State’s section for relations with states.
The same day saw the world premiere at the Vatican of The Letter: A Message For Our Earth, based on Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical letter, "Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home.”
Presented by YouTube Originals, the film was written and directed by Emmy-winner Nicolas Brown and produced by the Oscar-winning production company Off the Fence. It was made in partnership with the Laudato Si’ Movement, the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and the Dicastery for Communication.
The film features activists representing wildlife, Indigenous peoples, young people and the poor — the voices of those who are least listened to but are the most impacted by the consequences of climate change. The film includes their meeting with Pope Francis last year to talk about their national and personal challenges and what needs to be done.
The film is streaming for free at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rps9bs85BII
Message for the World Day of Prayer for Creation
Pope Francis calls for a “covenant” between people and the environment God gave us, in his Message for the World Day of Prayer for Creation to be observed by the Church on September 1st. In the text published on Thursday 21 July, the Pope calls for decisive actions at the upcoming COP27 on Climate Change and COP15 on Biodiversity, and appeals for the adoption of four key principles.
Pope: Sweet song of praise for Creation has become ‘anguished plea’
Vatican signs on to UN Climate Convention
The Vatican is now a formal party to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and has declared it intends to formally join the 2015 Paris Agreement. Source: CNS.
A statement released by the Vatican press office on Friday said The Holy See, in the name and on behalf of Vatican City State, intends to contribute and to give its moral support to the efforts of all states to cooperate in an effective and appropriate response to the challenges posed by climate change to humanity and to our common home.
Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, the Holy See's permanent observer to the United Nations, submitted the papers for formal "accession" to the convention on July 6, the Vatican said. "Accession" has the same legal effect as ratification and is used to join a treaty that already has been negotiated and entered into force.
"At the earliest possible date, considering the legal requirements of the Paris Agreement," the statement said, "the Holy See, in the name and on behalf of Vatican City State, will deposit the instrument of accession" to that agreement as well.
The framework convention followed the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and was updated in 1997 with the Kyoto Protocol and later with the Paris Agreement. Countries signing the original convention pledged to work to prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system, particularly by stabilising greenhouse gas emissions. With the Kyoto agreement, countries pledged to reduce those emissions and the Paris Agreement set specific goals for limiting global warming.
The Vatican's formal adhesion to the agreements, the statement said, is a sign of its commitment to work with nations to keep alive what Pope Francis has described as "a remarkable convergence on the urgent need for a change of direction, a decisive resolve to pass from the 'throwaway culture' prevalent in our societies to a 'culture of care' for our common home and its inhabitants, now and in the future". (11 July 2022)